in january of 2000, ktvu's bob mckenzie recounted their story. >> reporter: it was one of the great environmental outrages of the 20th century. husseih of iraq losing the war he started by innovating kuwait took a monumental revenge. they left 650 oil wells torched and burning, blackening the sky for hundreds of miles. predictions were that kuwait would burn for years. the fires in kuwait called forth the biggest firefighting effort in history. 8,000 pieces of heavy equipment, 125,000-tons of materials and gear left the u.s. on their way to kuwait. the becktal group, a san francisco based company took on the job of putting out the fire. 10,000 people from 43 countries would join this firefighting army. the commanding general, you might say, was terrance farly, the president of becktal construction at that time. he had built big projects all over the world but he wasn't prepared for what he found in kuwait. >> the magnitude of the damage in the oil field was much greater than anybody ever envisioned. you knew it, but you couldn't begin to envision the degree. >> reporter: the firefighters had foug