Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 28, 1991 TAG: 9102280495
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A/9 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NICOSIA, CYPRUS LENGTH: Short
It was not known how many oil wells, refineries and petrochemical facilities were on fire in Iraq as a result of nearly six weeks of allied bombing.
But allied military officials have said Iraq set nearly 500 Kuwaiti oil facilities ablaze. Burning wells cast an eerie orange glow for miles around the fields where flames shot hundreds of feet into the sky.
Some wells are believed surrounded by mines and booby traps that will be a nightmare for the private companies hired to extinguish the fires. Experts with oil firefighting companies in the United States have said it could take more than a year to extinguish all the fires.
A government-sponsored report published last month by the British Meteorological Office said oil fires burning that long would produce hundreds of thousands of tons of sulfur and nitrogen oxides, causing acid rain to fall over thousands of square miles.
"Because of its intense sulfuric acid content, the rainfall could start impacting the water supply and crops almost overnight. It depends on how much it rains," said Greenpeace spokesman Steve Elsworth in a telephone interview.
The fires already have darkened skies north to Turkey and south to Qatar, turning day to night and filling the air with the intense stench of oil.
In southeastern Turkey, black rain coated people's clothes and skin on Monday.
I U ION G PHIC: Putting Out Oil Well Fires in the Gulf P
by CNB