Hell on Earth

Stephane Compoint

Sygma for TIME

Four companies, Houston's Boots and Coots, Wild Well Control, Red Adair Company and the Calgary's Safety Boss, have been hired to cap the more than 600 'wild' wells the Iraqi's blew up. The Kuwaitis say they are losing six million barrels of crude a day, at a cost of $1,000 a second. The environmental cost is as yet incalculable and many depend largely on the success of these men. While one worker diverts a fountain of crude oil with his foot, the others struggle to remove a broken flange.

Stephane Compoint, "Hell on Earth," in POYi Archive, Item #20221, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/20221 (accessed April 21, 2025).