Objectives

To give an overview of how and what started the

Kuwait Oil Fire in 1991.
Its impact on the environment

Route of Exposure
Affected groups,
Measures used to correct the problem

Risk assessment, management and communication

Introduction on Kuwait Oil Fires 1991

Started February 1991 after the Persian Gulf War,
Iraqi opened valves at Sea Island oil terminal and dumped oil

from several tankers into the Persian Gulf in a strategic

wartime move against U.S. forces.
Iraqi forces bombed one of the largest Kuwaiti oil fields near

the Saudi Arabian border, two major mainland refineries, an

offshore loading terminal, and anchored tankers.
Fire was set to more than 600 oil wells and pools of spilled oil

in Kuwait.

Environmental Risk Identified

These are some of the gaseous exposures that were
released:
acid aerosols,
volatile organic compounds,

metal compounds,
carbon dioxide (CO2,
carbon monoxide (CO),

sulfur dioxide (SO2,

acidic aerosols,
soot.

Route of Exposure
People were at risk due to ingestion, inhalation and
dermal contact
asthmatic conditions
lung cancer

skin disorders
bronchitis

Vulnerable Groups
A lot of people and animals were at risk especially
those that were in close proximately. These people
includes:
Military personnel

Civilians
Firefighters
Children
Elderly
Animals(birds,

Methods implemented to correct Kuwait Oil

Fire 1991
A team of 16,000 workers using 6,000 pieces of construction

equipment were imported from 12 countries used to restored oil

production in just 12 months.
Bechtel deployed 1000 engineering and construction professionals

and Kuwait Oil Company, brought in 8,500 manual workers of 35

nationalities.
Highly trained specialists cleared areas of unexploded

ammunitions; huge quantities of everything from mines and bombs

to grenades and artillery shells.

Work done to fix Kuwait Oil Fire 1991

Rebuilt offshore export piers

Laid pipe extending more than 1,200 miles (some 2,000

kilometers)
Reconstructed tank farms, administration buildings, and

warehouses
Rebuilt 22 gathering centers using modular construction to

accelerate the process

Installed a telecommunications system that included 6,500

telephones and portable radios

Risk assessment on Kuwait Oil Fire 1991

Human health risk assessments of the chemical constituents
was conducted, stated there was little epidemiologic
information evaluating the actual impact of the fires on the
health of the military personnel.

No official or peer-reviewed published reports had been

identified that evaluate the prevalence or incidence of
respiratory conditions during the war.

Risk Management & Risk Communication on

Kuwait Oil Fire 1991
The team worked 14-hour days to reduce the time needed to
extinguish an oil well to one day and two hours compared to
other teams from around the world that took three days and eight
hours for each well.

Several researchers have stated that there are exposures unique

to the Gulf War that may be associated with the increased
symptom reporting. However, objective quantitative estimates of
Gulf War exposures have been sparse.

Conclusion
The Kuwait Oil Fire started by Iraqi President, Saddam
Hussein in 1991 after losing the Persian Gulf war. Causing
air pollution affecting children, animals, firefighters,
soldiers and the elderly.

The fire went on for eight months, consuming an estimated

five to six million barrels of crude oil and 70 to 100 million
cubic meters of natural gas per day. This fire was brought
to an end by 16,000 workers and 6,000 equipment.