Once the fire starts to create enough subsidence that it breaks air
passages to the surface it becomes very difficult to extinguish. You
have to mine out all the burning material - even a small spot (about
an inch across) when left in place will reignite - and the fire does
not burn evenly but different layers of the coal burn at different
rates so that the flame front is very hard to define
Dave
>I live just 16 miles from Centralia Pennsylvania. The mine fire started
>there in the 1960's and has been burning out of control since.
> When I first moved to NE Pennsylvania, in the 1990's , there was still
>something of a village left, albeit sparse. A large Catholic church, post
>office, and even a shop. All since gone. Now there is just a scattering of
>houses. one or two people determinedly hanging on.
> I go up there often, because one of my subjects of interest is the founder
>of Centralia, Alexander Rea. It is eerie standing on a road, spotting smoke
>rising from fissures in the ground, and smelling the sulfurous fumes of
>anthracite burning deep underground.
>Especially haunting on a snowy day, to see Centralia not covered in snow
>when the rest of the mountain is.
>Centralia causes controversy. Some folk (including Rea's great grandson, who
>was himself a mine engineer) claim that the fire could have been stopped at
>the beginning. Some folk believe it was deliberately set. It is hard to see
>old photos of the town, and try to match those with the bleak and naked
>streets now.
>Every so often another doomed house in the town is torn down, just days
>before it's claimed by fire. I try to keep track of each new loss. I often
>wonder if the fire will spread to nearby Ashland. Another old mining town.
>How many other towns have been lost to such fires I wonder?
>Here in Pennsylvania, there was another terrible fire that took out West
>Carbondale. It was literally dug out of existence.
>Was that a happier end? Brutal to dig a town out of existance, but watching
>a town burn slowly away, is agonising to behold.
> Fiona Powell
--
David A. Summers
Curators' Professor of Mining Engineering
Adjunct Professor of Nuclear Engineering
Director
Rock Mechanics and Explosives Research Center
University of Missouri-Rolla,
Rolla, MO 65409-0810
"fools talk, wise men listen." (a variant of Prov 12:23)
phone: (573) 341 4314
FAX: (573) 341 4368
related web pages
A growing selection of Dr. Summers' papers are being put on the Web
and can be accessed through the Bibliography
http://www.umr.edu/~rockmech/faculty/biography.html
Rock Mechanics http://campus.umr.edu/rmerc/
Waterjet Lab: http://www.umr.edu/~waterjet/
UMR Stonehenge: http://www.umr.edu/~stonehen/
Personal: http://www.umr.edu/~rockmech/data/Summers.html
Mining Eng. http://www.umr.edu/~mining/
Waterjet Assoc http://www.wjta.org/
International Waterjet Society: http://www.iw.uni-hannover.de/iswjt/
Next American Waterjet conference: http://www.wjta.org/conference.htm
7th Pacific Rim Conference (May 2003) http://www.kojet.org
Distance Learning: http://campus.umr.edu/mining/ogeneral.htm
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