Fires of Kuwait is a 1992 documentary film on the Kuwaiti oil fires directed by David Douglas. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film was the winner of the 2005 Hall of Fame Award from Giant Screen Cinema Association. The documentary focuses on the international effort to extinguish Kuwait’s burning oilfields in the aftermath of the Gulf War.
The Kuwaiti oil fires were caused by Iraqi military forces setting fire to a reported 605 to 732 oil wells along with an unspecified number of oil filled low-lying areas, such as oil lakes and fire trenches, as part of a scorched earth policy while retreating from Kuwait in 1991 due to the advances of US-led coalition forces in the Persian Gulf War. The fires were started in January and February 1991, and the first well fires were extinguished in early April 1991, with the last well capped on November 6, 1991.