“Fearless Encounters” Documentary Primer screening

“they were in Darkness, darker than the darkest night”

We were invited by Mr.Talal Shwaish & the KNCC to attend the documentary “Fearless Encounters” premiere. i my self got the chance to meet some of those brave heros casting the documentary and i could easily spot the time lapse lines on their faces. Now after 21 years the inside untold story of the Fearless Encounters is finally revealed … their eyelashes were burnt & their bodies were totally covered with crude oil.

“War is Scary, but the aftermath is horrifying”  

FEARLESS ENCOUNTERS, A new documentary film ,Honoring the Kuwaiti Oil Firefighting team. The film was never edited or released until 2011. Shot 20 years ago by the Kuwaiti filmmaker, Talal Showaish-Salem , who spent 6 weeks with the team ,in the horrific inferno . Telling the inside untold story of the Kuwaiti oil firefighter’s heroic Fearless Encounters . when the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein was forced out of Kuwait by the world Coalition forces in February 1991, out of spite and hatred he ordered his defeated retreating army to Blow up all of Kuwait’s Oil wells. More than 650 Oil wells ,where on fire for 8 months, burning on average 6 million Barrels of Oil P/Day. In total, more than 1 Billion Barrels of Crude oil was burnt. The Kuwaiti firefighting team started 180 days after the main 4 world famous, American and Canadian oil firefighting teams. the Kuwaiti Team overwhelmed the world by their unmatched speed in killing the fiercest oil well fires, reaching temperatures of 2000C . Against all bets, the Kuwaitis, managed to Extinguish the biggest well in Kuwait BG160, which was burning 60,000 Barrels of oil per day. Their speed and relentless enthusiasm, they ignited the competitive spirit amongst all the other firefighting teams, which lead to extinguishing all the fires in 7 months only, compared to the initial world expert predictions of 5 years.

 

6 millions Barrels of oil were burning everyday, a quick calculation would show severe losses of millions after millions of Dinars daily, the Kuwaiti team maintained a working regime of a continuous 14 working hrs daily from sun rise to after sun set. Extinguishing & capping 41 wells in 53 days, the Kuwaiti team were considered the fastest amongst the other experienced overseas teams. everyday & every moment counts considering the enormous losses.

This figure shows the capping and extinguishing progress over time, as well as the decrease in flow of lost oil ( last well was extinguished by November 1991)

 

This reflects the contribution of  Kuwait Oil Company in Manpower investment serving the best they could for our beloved Kuwait in one of the biggest crisis that the region environment & our only income (Oil) could face. Or i would go further & say: one of the biggest that the human race could yet encounter.

 

The Documentary left us speechless for the 55 min show, what made the crowd more emotional is the presence of some of the team heros & there families in the movie theater. The film focused on their daily life during the crisis in all means, basically i would say that simplicity was the director scope.

“time have changed but souls didn’t”

 

The names which will (and should) be engraved on Kuwait soil, The members of the Kuwaiti oil firefighting Team:

1. Ali Ghuloom
2. Abdulqader Abdulrahman
3. Ayad Al-Kandari
4. Ali Asad
5. Adnan Al-Sayed
6. Abdullatif Al-Rabbah
7. Abdulwahab Al-Sayed
8. Abdullatif Hussain
9. Ahmad Abdulrahim
10. Ahmad Malik
11. Abdulkarim Al-Sharifi
12. Bader Jowhar
13. Bader Al-khabbaz
14. Essa Bo Yabes
15. Eshaq Abu Alhassan
16. Haidar Farman
17. Humoud Al-harbi
18. Jassim Al-Ghais
19. Jassim Al-Khamis
20. Mohmoud Al-Somali
21. Reyadh Nouri
22. Shebeeb Al-Ajmi
23. Saud Al-Nashmi
24. Sara Akbar
25. Sami Al-Yaqoot
26. Sulaiman Hassan
27. Samir Mohamad
28. Turki Al-Otaibi
29. Yaqoub Al-Kandari
30. Yousef Abdulrahman
31. Yaqoub Abdullah

“Dear Kuwaiti oil firefighter’s team … Our fathers, uncles, brothers & son’s … at this moment at this spot all we could do is to expose you & your story to the world, hopefully it would make the influence that we need in us. Thank you for making our lives better, Thank you for giving all you got”

The sad part is that despite the painstaking efforts of those brave heroes and the director, the film did not receive the appropriate support & was produced 21 years later of the shooting.

Thank you Talal Shwaish & Thank you the KNCC for making this happen.

“Fearless Encounters” on all KNCC cinemas starting today May 10th. get your tickets.

“our history draw the headlines of our future”

What Do You Think ?