Space Shuttle Photograph, NASA
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At the close of the Gulf War in 1991, Iraqi troops set fire to hundreds of oil wells as they retreated from Kuwait. The intensely hot fires were visible from space. This daytime view taken in the spring of 1991 by astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle shows thick trails of black smoke rising up to 4900 meters (16,000 feet) into the sky. The capital, Kuwait City, lies just south of the two large smoke trails at top. Crews of firefighters from several nations worked for almost a year to put out the fires. The last fire was ceremonially extinguished by the Emir of Kuwait on November 6, 1991. Export of petroleum resumed within a year and Kuwait's economy is rebounding from the disaster.