Oil Well Fire Fighting Companies Concerned Over Potential UXO in Iraq

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Iraq is as big as Texas, with 73 oil fields spread out across the country. DoD officials in preparation for a potential war are concerned that the Iraqi military may resort to detonating the oil fields with explosives similar to what they did to Kuwait's oil wells during the Persian Gulf War. With the potential for war, DoD officials have begun to engage U.S. and international commercial oil well fire fighting companies for their support. Along with the thick black smoke during the Kuwait fires, UXO that littered the area after the war was also of great concern. In the beginning of the clean up after the Persian Gulf War, U.S. and British EOD handled the removal of the UXO for the fire fighters. However, when the EOD teams got deployed to other areas throughout the gulf, authorities offered to bring in demolition teams from Bangladesh which caused some fire fighting companies to opt to remove the UXO themselves. In Kuwait, fire fighters spent more than "eight months" putting out well fires. Should Iraq do the same in their country, "the fire fighting could take years. ---"