Guest
The Red Adair Co., Inc. presents “The Devil’s Cigarette Lighter.” This circa 1962 color film features the first person narration of famed oil well fire fighter Red Adair, who takes you step by step as he and his fire fighters (including Boots Hansen and Coots Mathews) extinguished the oil well fire that put the Red Adair Company on the map and made him a celebrity. The natural gas well fire was nicknamed “The Devil’s Cigarette Lighter. The fire, in the Sahara Desert of Algeria, ignited in 1961 when a pipe ruptured on a Phillips Petroleum Company-owned well. The blowout and fire were estimated to have consumed enough gas to supply Paris for three months. After burning almost six months, the fire was extinguished by Adair by using explosives to deprive the flame of oxygen. The incident became the basis of the film Hellfighter starring John Wayne in the role of Adair.
