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Boots and Coots attack their first oil well fire in the Rumaila field after a delay of a week due to security, sandstorms, and bureaucracy problems. They are using a heat-hardened backhoe to scrape away debris from around the burning wellhead while team members cool the equipment with a constant water spray. The Rumaila field is one of Iraq's biggest oil fields with five billion barrels in reserve. Many of the wells are 10,000 feet deep and produce huge volumes of oil and gas under tremendous pressure, which makes capping them very difficult and dangerous. Rumaila is also spelled Rumeilah.

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IRQ_030328_118_rwx.jpg
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©Peter Menzel, www.menzelphoto.com
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Iraq
Boots and Coots attack their first oil well fire in the Rumaila field after a delay of a week due to security, sandstorms, and bureaucracy problems. They are using a heat-hardened backhoe to scrape away debris from around the burning wellhead while team members cool the equipment with a constant water spray. The Rumaila field is one of Iraq's biggest oil fields with five billion barrels in reserve. Many of the wells are 10,000 feet deep and produce huge volumes of oil and gas under tremendous pressure, which makes capping them very difficult and dangerous. Rumaila is also spelled Rumeilah.
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