OIL: The Fire Beater

On a well drilling platform, 14 miles off the Louisiana bayou shore, there was a sudden roar. Into the air shot great hissing sheets of flame. What oilmen fear worst—a well "blowout" and fire—had set aflame two of Pure Oil Co.'s gas wells.

The oilmen knew what to do. They put in a hurry call to the world's most famous oil-fire fighter, 53-year-old Myron Kinley. As marks of his calling, Kinley has a permanently crippled right leg and carries masses of scar tissue all over his body. The call found him at his Bel-Air...

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