California, April 29, 1913 - Myron Kinley and his father, Karl, made history in the Taft oil fields near Bakersfield, when Karl became the first man to use nitroglycerin to extinguish an oil well fire. The unprecedented feat came to be known as the "shot heard around the oil world."
Romania, 1931 - Never had a fire burned so long and so hard as Romania's Moreni No. 160. A ferocious blaze that flamed for over two years and lit the skies for as far as seventy miles, the Moreni No. 160 had already claimed the lives of fourteen men by the time Romanian oil executives agreed to the innovative approach proposed by maverick firefighter, Myron Kinley.
Gladewater, Texas, 1931 - A spark caused by tool friction on the Cole No. 1 turned the well into a howling inferno. Myron Kinley was soon on the job at the Texas disaster site that burned for over 200 hours, consumed over 3,000 barrels of oil, and killed seven men.
Iran, 1951 - Without finishing his lunch, Myron Kinley answered an emergency call from the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and flew directly to an Iranian battle site some 8,000 miles from his Houston home. The fierce fight under the burning sun of the Persian desert sealed his world fame as an ace firefighter. In 1952, Myron Kinley and his work was immortalized in the film documentary, Rig 20, winner of the 1952 Venice Film Festival.
