'Exhausted' Iraqi firefighters dodge mines to battle oil fires

As the battle for Mosul rages, so do the flames from more than a dozen wells, with black smoke streaming almost incessantly, blackening the sky, buildings, even sheep.

Fleeing civilians are also struggling to breathe under the thick cloud of toxic smoke.

Along with oil engineers and police officers, firefighters have been working around the clock to extinguish the flames.

IS militants' "scorched earth" tactics are an attempt to slow government forces advancing on the IS stronghold.

The wells have belched columns of toxic black smoke for three months, caking everything in and around Qayyarah in a thick layer of soot.

Such is the magnitude of the smoke that it can be seen from outer space, accoring to NASA Earth Observatory.

Putting out the fires has proved to be a complex and dangerous process.

Clad in red helmets and surgical masks, the firefighters struggle to pump water into a well near Qayyarah, a small town in the Iraqi desert some 60 kilometres south of Mosul.

"First, the federal police have to check for mines left by IS at the mouth of the oil wells," Saleh Khodr Ahmad, a worker at the site, told AFP.

Once the area is cleared and the blaze brought under relative control, firefighters "place a pipe into the mouth of the well to pump water in, and cover it with dirt", said Ahmad.

The whole process can take up to a month and only two of the 19 lit oil wells have been extinguished.

Exhausted

"I'm exhausted, my body has been destroyed," Ahmad said.

According to the UN's environmental programme, crude oil fires "produce a wide range of pollutants, including soot and gases that cause health problems such as skin irritation and shortness of breath".

UN environment chief Erik Solheim said the situation was a "recipe for a prolonged disaster".

A pair of firetrucks and ambulances were parked at the ready in the sand nearby.

"The ambulances are here to treat the cases of suffocation and any injuries from explosives," said Ismail Ali Mohammed, a police officer tasked with guarding the site.

One of his colleagues was killed on Saturday after he stepped on a mine at the same well as firefighters were trying to bring under control.

"I've been here 15 days, working 24-hour shifts. We've all been poisoned by this smoke," Mohammed, whose family still lives in IS-controlled parts of Mosul, said.

"This is a terrible scene, a deplorable situation."