1992 Photo Contest, People in the News, 1st prize
Photographer

Stephane Compoint

Sygma

01 January, 1991

Tean workers wash off the day's dirt in a reservoir dug to put out fires. Iraq's demolition troops left hundreds of 'wild wells' in Kuwait gushing with oil, as much as six million barrels a day at the peak. Then the desert firefighters moved in, latter day cowboys with helmets instead of stetsons, working for companies with names like Boots & Coots and Safety Boss. They got to work amidst unexploded mines and the roar of burning jets of oil, on soil so hot it blistered their knees as they knelt down. First the fires had to be put out, then came the messy business of well capping.

About the photographer

Stephane Compoint

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