PUERTO VEGA, Colombia (AP) _ He has worked all over the world extinguishing oil-well fires, but David Thompson finds trying to control blazes that have been burning for weeks in the jungles of southern Colombia may be his most dangerous job yet.
As Thompson and his team prepare to fight the messy fires, rebels in the surrounding jungle attack the Colombian soldiers dispatched to protect the Americans and their equipment.
``We've been told this is one of the hottest war zones in the country,'' Thompson said as he stood near a well spewing oil-streaked balls of fire.
He and three other Americans from Cudd Well Control of Houston arrived in southern Colombia's Putumayo state after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, dynamited five oil wells near the village of Puerto Vega on July 22.
It took the Colombian military a week to clear rebel land mines and secure the area, 345 miles south of the capital, Bogota.
``Normally when there's a blowout, they call us and we're on the plane in a couple of hours,'' said the 51-year-old Thompson. ``But this time it took longer, with all the security concerns.''
Hundreds of soldiers were dispatched to protect Cudd Well's 80 tons of equipment after it was flown into an airport in Puerto Asis, the region's main town, transported by boat across the Putumayo River and taken to the burning wells in a dozen trucks.
The equipment, worth millions of dollars, arrived at the wells on Wednesday. Fearful truck drivers have spent sleepless nights with their cargo at the wells ever since, waiting for the Americans to unload the equipment.
``We are scared,'' said Alfonso Salguero, 32. ``Just this morning there was an attack. But we have to do it _ it's work.''
Combat has frequently broken out on the rim of the Colombian troops' security cordon. Gen. Jorge Pineda, commander of the army's 27th Jungle Brigade, said there have been no casualties among his troops, and at least one rebel has been killed.
``We heard some shots yesterday,'' said Thompson, wearing a camouflage outfit instead of his usual orange jumpsuit ``to keep a low profile.''
Thompson, who fought oil-well fires set by retreating Iraqi troops during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, said he is trying to focus on how to put out the fires, which fill the sky with black smoke.
Petroleum had solidified over one burning well, which was surrounded by bubbling globs of oil. Rivers of oil ablaze with dancing sparks oozed into a nearby lagoon, which was filled with dead fish.
Authorities have not yet calculated the environmental damage but say it is immense. Nearly $150,000 of oil is lost per day, and officials calculate it will take $4 million to get the wells back in operating condition.
On Thursday, the Americans directed cranes that unloaded equipment at one of the blown-up wells, which was shooting oil up to 150 feet in the air. Thompson barked orders from a fold-out chair with the Texan flag on it.
Just 200 feet away, Zoila Rosero lamented the damage to her small farm.
Rosero's normally pink pigs were painted black and brown from the oil spray. All but two of her dozens of chickens and roosters died after eating chunks of dried oil. The family's drinking water, collected from rainwater in open barrels, is black.
The explosion that blew up the well also rocked her house.
``I was so scared, I thought we were going to die,'' recalled Rosero, who had seen about eight rebels drive up to the well before the blast.
``I am so angry that they didn't warn us'' she said.
Colombian rebels, who have been waging war against a series of elected governments in this South American country for four decades, frequently attack oil pipelines that snake across northern, eastern and southern Colombia to try to cripple the state or to extort money. This is apparently their first attack on oil wells.
Thompson estimated it will take 40 days to put out the fires, recap the wells and clean the sites.
