ISIS Leaves Toxic Legacy with Burning Oil Wells
COSTELLO: The battle to drive ISIS from Mosul rages on in Iraq. Just to the south, one town is still suffering even though ISIS left months ago. The terror group's scorched earth tactics have left residents with a toxic legacy. Phil Black has more.</s>PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As ISIS retreated from this territory it transformed the landscape into this apocalyptic vision. The group blew up and set fire to 19 oil wells near the town of Qayyara. We don't know the motivation. More ruthless vengeful destruction or perhaps the hope it would provide cover from air power above. The fires have burned since August, lowering the sky, concealing the sun, layering the earth and people's lungs with toxic black filth. (</s>On camera): The heat coming off this fire it is incredible. It's melted much of the ground around the well. The air, it is thick and foul. It really tastes terrible. It makes your eyes water. This is the poisonous atmosphere that people in this part of Iraq have been breathing in and living with for months. (</s>Voice-over): There's now a desperate effort to fix the wells. But lead engineer Itkhlaf Mohammed tells me it's a difficult complex process. He says you can't just put the fire out because that would release vast amounts of deadly fumes. First, earth-moving equipment is used to contain the fire and channel the flowing, bubbling oil into reservoirs. Then workers dig down through the flames while trying to keep the oil and their equipment cool as they haul out mounds of smoking sludge and earth. Gaze through the flames and you can see the fire's red-hot core. They need to get through all of this to find the head of the well. Only then can they determine the extent of the damage and what must be done to close it. Workers here say the nature of the job is always challenging and dangerous and in the beginning, they had to cope with ISIS as well. This man says you'll be trying to dig out the fires and they'll be shooting at you. You'll be using the hose and mortars will start coming in. The group also left mines around the burning wells. Most haven't been cleared yet. It's too early to accurately estimate the value of the wasted oil or the cost of the repair work. The final figure will be many millions of dollars. The human cost is more disturbing. Families live beneath the towering columns of smoke and a sky that always feels like twilight. Children's faces and hands are stained by the same air they breathe. A dark shadow now hangs over their health, their future, because of yet another toxic legacy left behind by ISIS. Phil Black, CNN, Qayyara, northern Iraq.</s>COSTELLO: Coming up in the NEWSROOM, a former NFL player gunned down after an argument at an intersection.