Celebrated oil well firefighter Paul N. "Red" Adair is hanging up his red aluminum hard hat after nearly five decades of snuffing out raging infernos.
Adair on Tuesday announced that he has sold his company to Global Industries Ltd. of Lafayette, La., for an undisclosed sum.He will try to confine his day-to-day activities to business development and public relations for the buyer. Being on the scene of a fire without giving orders would make him nervous, Adair said.
The 78-year-old Adair, who once said he would never retire, talked Tuesday about "playing a little golf, taking my boat out" and relaxing on his south Texas ranch.
After the Persian Gulf War, The Red Adair Co. brought 119 wells under control in Kuwait out of about 700 that were torched by the Iraqis. Other heralded jobs included putting out a massive offshore blaze at Bay
Marchand, La., in 1970; the Bravo offshore blowout in the North Sea in 1977; the Ixtoc blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in 1979; and the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988 that killed 167 men on a North Sea platform.
Adair was the inspiration for the 1968 movie "Hellfighters," starring John Wayne. Adair said he became friends with Wayne while serving as a technical adviser for the movie and even took the actor to see a real blowout.
The sale of The Red Adair Co. to Global Industries, which provides pipeline construction, derrick and diving services to the offshore oil and gas industry, includes the company's offices in Houston and pieces of heavy equipment. The firm's four full-time employees will remain with the company, which will retain the Adair name and become a subsidiary of Global.