Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!geac!contact!dmntor!bill
From: bill@dmntor.UUCP (Bill Kyle)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: oil well fires and shuttle tiles
Message-ID: <1991Mar21.215538.19983@dmntor.UUCP>
Date: 21 Mar 91 21:55:38 GMT
References: <1991Mar14.151130.3822@welch.jhu.edu> <8300@rsiatl.Dixie.Com> <1991Mar17.211535.9716@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: bill@dmntor.UUCP (Bill Kyle)
Organization: Digital Media Networks, Toronto, Canada
Lines: 37

In article <1991Mar17.211535.9716@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> gardner@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Mike Gardner) writes:
>stan@Dixie.Com (Stan Brown) writes:
>
>>jimh@welch.jhu.edu (Jim Hoffman) writes:
>
>>>Just an idea. Scince fire needs oxygen to live, why not smother the flames
>>>of the Middle East.  Build a dome structure that has shuttle tiles as the
>>>interior wall.  For one, the flame will smother on its own smoke and combine
>>>it with foam or water or what ever to cool it.  Two, the shuttle tiles 
>Rather than try to smother, try to separate the "fire" from the "fuel".
>
>Build a "Y" section of pipe to be lowered over the well head.  Each of the
>top arms fo the Y would have nozzles and valves.  When it is lowered
>over the head, only one would be open.  The unit would have to be large
>enough and heavy enough to form a reasonable seal against the sand.  The
>flame front should move up to the top of the open arm of the Y as the unit
>hits the sand.   Once it's in place, the hot nozzle would be closed as the
>cold one opened.   The distance between the nozzles would have to be sufficient
>to keep one from igniting the other as it goes out.  As soon as things are
>cool it could be removed and repairs begun.
>mgg

Sorry....this is not a candle that we are trying to put out. The heat and
the force of the flames would destroy any apparatus being lowered onto the
flames. 

As far as I know there are 2 methods being used today.

A) Blow out the fire with an explosion

B) Drill into the well pipe below the ground to choke the flames by
diverting or blocking its fuel. 

All this stuff about domes and various devices being constructed greatly
underestimate the heat and force of well-head fires. 

Bill K