His greatest feat came when he was in his seventies - confronting 117 gigantic oil-well infernos that dominated the horizon in Kuwait, the legacy of Saddam Hussein's departing Iraqi troops after the first Gulf war. Adair and his crews finished putting out the fires in nine months, as opposed to the five years first envisaged, without a single casualty, and indeed the 5ft 7in boss maintained that none of his employees had ever suffered a serious injury while firefighting.

As well as a charismatic risk taker, Adair was an astute businessman, creating various enterprises throughout his life. As well as pioneering semi-submersible firefighting vessels and the design of oil derricks deployed in the North Sea, he also contributed to the technical advancement of various marine firefighting boats and water guns.

Born in the American oil capital of Houston, Texas, as soon as he could toddle, he witnessed the power of fire in the workshop of his blacksmith father, Charles. But it was a large, poor family, and young Red - so nicknamed for the colour of his hair - left Reagan high school early to take on various jobs before joining the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1936.

Two years later he got his first oil job, for the Otis Pressure Control Co in the fields around Houston. Here he learned from the bottom up the skills of extracting "black gold" from the earth. When the US joined the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Adair served in the 139th Bomb Disposal Squad, and rose to staff sergeant. His work on unexploded shells and bombs in Japan taught him two skills that would serve him well later: how to utilise and control explosives safely, and how to keep a cool head under extreme pressure and danger.

He returned to Houston after the war and went to work with Myron Kinley, who had established the techniques of oil-well blowout and fire control. He stayed with Kinley for 14 years before forming his own Red Adair Co, where he perfected the methods for controlling "wild wells". At the same time, he developed a flamboyant public persona, capitalising on his nickname with bright red firefighting uniforms and helmets, a red logo, and red accoutrements, replicas of which he would later sell to fans.

He and his crews were soon averaging 42 fires a year, extinguished or controlled, all over the world, inland and at sea. The Adair teams completed more than 1,000 assignments internationally through using explosives and drilling mud and concrete. In 1968 the film Hellfighters came out, with Wayne starring as Adair.

Adair scored numerous firsts in conquering oil-well fires, including capping the first US land well, extinguishing an underwater wild well, and a fire on a large vessel at sea. He got big press coverage for the Catco offshore fire (1959), the "Devil's Cigarette Lighter" in the Sahara desert (1962), a massive offshore blaze in the Bay Marchand field off the Louisiana coast (1970), the Bravo blowout in the North Sea (1977), the Ixtoc blowout in the Gulf of Mexico (1979), and the Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea (1988), after an explosion had killed 167 oil workers.

When Adair arrived in Kuwait in early March 1991, there were fires everywhere. Thick black smoke made it impossible to get any sense of direction. Adair and his teams were housed in ransacked buildings, but most serious was a lack of equipment - and water.

He decided to exploit pipelines used to carry oil from stations in the oilfields to the Persian Gulf. These would be reversed to carry salt water from the Gulf back to fight the fires, a plan that required pumping the 1.5bn gallons of water that were eventually used. Adair had to fly to Washington in June to testify in order to get his equipment. With his flair for showmanship, he showed a dramatic slide presentation, explaining that extinguishing a fire is not the most difficult part. What happens afterwards is the most dangerous, because while the well is still blowing it can flash and reignite, killing the crew on top of it.

Adair met President George Bush the following day to express his concerns, and got a pledge of support. By early July, the equipment began rolling into Kuwait, and by November the Emir of Kuwait ceremoniously extinguished the last fire.

Adair retired when he sold his company in 1994.

He is survived by his wife Kemmie, daughter Robyn and son Jimmy.

· Paul Neal (Red) Adair, firefighter, born June 18 1915; died August 7 2004