
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 28, 1991                   TAG: 9102280044
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NICOSIA, CYPRUS                                LENGTH: Medium

OIL FIRES PRODUCE BLACK SKY, GREASY RAIN

Burning oil fields in Kuwait and Iraq spewed dense black clouds on Wednesday, blocking out the sun over hundreds of miles of desert and dumping greasy toxic rain on civilians, water supplies and crops.

It was not known how many oil wells, refineries and petrochemical facilities were on fire in Iraq as a result of nearly six weeks of allied bombing.

But allied military officials have said Iraq set nearly 500 Kuwaiti oil facilities ablaze. Burning wells cast an eerie orange glow for miles around the fields where flames shot hundreds of feet into the sky.

Some wells are believed surrounded by mines and booby traps that will be a nightmare for the private companies hired to extinguish the fires. Experts with oil firefighting companies in the United States have said it could take more than a year to extinguish all the fires.

A government-sponsored report published last month by the British Meteorological Office said oil fires burning that long would produce hundreds of thousands of tons of sulfur and nitrogen oxides, causing acid rain to fall over thousands of square miles.

"Because of its intense sulfuric acid content, the rainfall could start impacting the water supply and crops almost overnight. It depends on how much it rains," said Greenpeace spokesman Steve Elsworth in a telephone interview.

The fires already have darkened skies north to Turkey and south to Qatar, turning day to night and filling the air with the intense stench of oil.

In southeastern Turkey, black rain coated people's clothes and skin on Monday. Hundreds of nervous residents telephoned state officials for information about the rain.

Turkish officials said they were conducting tests to determine if the pollution was caused by the oil fires in Kuwait and Iraq, about 600 miles away.

The governor of the Turkish state of Adana told residents not to use rainwater and cautioned them not to allow their animals to drink it, the semi-official Anatolia news agency said.

Greasy, black rain also has been reported in parts of Iran for weeks, threatening to poison drinking water and destroy crops. Billowing black clouds have stretched at least 900 miles across Iran .

by CNB