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News imageWitness History, Witness History, Kuwaiti oil fires of 1991

Witness History

Witness History

Kuwaiti oil fires of 1991


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12 November 2021

10 minutes

Available for over a year

After the end of the Gulf War in 1991, retreating Iraqi forces set light to oil wells in the desert. Specialist firefighters were drafted in by the Kuwaiti government to help put them out. Simon Watts spoke to one of those firefighters, Richard Hatteberg, in 2010.

This is a rebroadcast.

Photo: an oil fire in Kuwait. March 1991. Credit:Getty Images.

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