Red Adair Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Red Adair worked until 1956 for Myron Kinley, the original pioneer of oil well fire and blowout control. He then formed the Red Adair Company, which became world-famous for pioneering techniques to control oil well fires and blowouts. His firm was the first to extinguish an underwater wild well and the first to cap a U.S. well while it was on fire. Red's legend started when he extinguished the "Devil's Cigarette Lighter" in 1962 in the Sahara Desert. The blaze had been burning for six months, fueled by over 550 million cubic feet of gas a day. He also fought the 1970 offshore blaze at Bay Marchland, Louisiana, and the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988. Perhaps his most famous battle occurred when Red's team extinguished 117 oil well fires in Kuwait, left by the retreating Iraqi Army in 1991. The John Wayne character in Hellfighters (1968) was modeled on Adair. Red sold his company in 1993.