Article: Fire in the Hole
Date: March 12th 2009
Publisher: The Economist
Some fires just burn and burn. In Pennsylvania alone, 36 fires are blazing in abandoned coal mines, covering a total area of 180,000 acres. The oldest of these fires is in the Red Ash mines, located in the hillsides of Wilkes-Barre; it has been burning since 1915 because, according to the legend, a coal miner forgot his lantern down in the mines. The most famous of these fires is beneath Centralia, started by residents burning rubbish on top of an exposed coal seam in 1962. Many of these fires have enough fuel to burn on for several decades to come.
Putting these fires out has not been an attractive solution to the problem because the process would be both expensive and possibly unsuccessful, since the mines consist of subterranean tunnel networks that cover a significant area. Therefore, the solution has been to evacuate towns located near these mines.
A possible solution to the problem has been presented by GAI consultants: a concrete like substance derived from the waste of coal powered power plants has been pumped into a mine and extinguished a fire. The mixture contained the fire and starved it of oxygen; however, the substance hardens quickly and could not cover an area as vast as Centralia. For now all one can hope is that the fire doesn’t spread to cover 5,000 acres; that would make it hard to extinguish.
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