Burning Coal Country: Is underground fire spreading towards homes, businesses in Schuylkill
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- Part 1 of an exclusive 4-part series investigating a coal fire in Schuylkill County.
The underground mine fire in Centralia has been talked about for decades, and made national news.
Virtually everyone in the borough in central Pennsylvania had to be relocated, but this story is about something different. There is another fire that has people wondering if Centralia is spreading underground toward their homes and businesses.
Watch all 4-Parts of this series at WFMZ.com: www.wfmz.com/n...
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Watch all 4-Parts of this series at WFMZ.com: www.wfmz.com/news/area/poconos-coal/burning-coal-country-69-news-investigates-underground-fire-in-schuylkill-what-could-be-done-to/collection_92bfe52a-ad65-11ed-ab77-87ebd14cd445.html
I'm in SW PA and we have had our share of mine fires over the years. People who "love" coal have no idea the impact coal mines have on a community even 100 years after a mine closes. Not just the fires, but the infrastructure damage due to mine subsidence. Roads continually in need of repair, broken water mains, etc., The coal barons got their money out of the ground on the backs of immigrants and we citizens are stuck paying for the mess they caused. Mr. Vanderbilt, I'm looking at you.
So presumably you or your family didn't benefit in any way from the use of coal???
You didn't have a warm house in winter???
You didn't use any electricity to make toast or dry your hair???
You never benefited from anything made of steel??? Ie, car, refrigerator, vacuum cleaner, toaster, wheelbarrow, air conditioner, kitchen knives, washer or dryer???
You get the idea by now I hope!
Unless you grew up in a teepee and lived only off the land using stone and wood tools, we are all looking back at you!!!😂😂😂
I don't ask much, but don't be stupid!!!
The only reason that the coal was taken out of the ground was because society demands a better life!
And so do you!!!😊😊😊
Boulder, CO here too
There is a surface seam in Australia that has been burning into a mountain continuously for thousands of years.
What's it called? I'd like to look into it.
The sacrifice seam
Mount Wingen
Thousands, huh?
The sad thing is this potentially could have been dealt with years ago. But politicians had to hold up the process until everyones plans repeatedly failed.
I would bet it was he mining industry calling the shots Maybe politicians had interests themselves but i find its the businesses like oil n coal who have more to lose
I live very close to there , my dad was an underground and above ground coal miner for close to 40 years he thinks it hit water level underground, because when you go through there you no longer see it smoking , plus it’s not the only place burning like that in the area , behind patterson block between lavelle and locust gap burns sometimes and over before brady/ranshaw it burns too but centraila is the most known . A lot of people don’t know that it’s the rock and methane gas burning not the coal coal won’t burn in its natural state
Well, today I learned.
I thought coal could just be lit by itself
Like
Chunk o coal
Into bowl
Apply bic flame
Have worst smelling candle
Dang, I never knew that!
Coal will burn in situ, but it needs enough oxygen, more than it can usually get, so you are also right that it's MOSTLY the methane and other light fractions that are burning. But if the ignition is near a shaft or tunnel which hasn't been sealed, then coal can burn.
sounds like people can start moving back in centralia.
@@michaelbeary Why would they? What sort of jobs are there? And there is still the other toxicity from the mines....... heavy metals like arsenic, lead, cadmium.
If you took a look at abandoned route 61 you’d see what the fire can do to roads
Confirming its existence?? I live almost 2000 miles (near Centralia, WA) and I’ve known about the Centralia, PA mine fire for years.
So why isn't this being used as a method to heat water for steam electric power generation?
Waste of burning coal otherwise.
Quick stick a tax on it.
So when coal burns its mass is dropped to roughly 13% so that other 87% will that become a problem with sinkholes and such?
It already does/has. I live in PA coal country every. I’m currently working at reactivating an old coal fire plant in SE PA. I also give coal out as stocking stuffers. It’s a pretty wild place. There are sink holes all over.
Silent hill I think was a movie based on this towns 🔥
Coal veins can go for Miles, connecting to other veins. While a vein of coal might be unprofitable, the fire doesn't Care: it'll burn it anyway. Soooo, yeah. This could be bad news for people Hundreds of miles away from any of these fires...
A few years ago companies were working to do fracking operations so they could dispose of CO2 i don't understand why they don't seal up the mines and flood them with CO2 if they need to dispose of it
The government could have stopped this, but they couldn't make money off it, so they refused to do anything about it.
You'd think after all this time, they'd either figure out how to extinguish the fires or use them to fuel a power plant.
So they thought lighting a garbage dump on fire over a coal depsit was a good idea in 1962 ?
There have been morons in society and in power since the beginning of civilization. Seems to be a lot more lately.
That wasn't the cause. It started with a fracking spoil tip in Columbia County. But they're not telling the public that.
@@50pinkies67What is a "fracking spoil tip" and what does it usually contain?
@@50pinkies67lmao no it didn't. It 100% started at the site of that garbage dump
It was burning garbage. fRaCKiNg??
That video they took is showing steam, not smoke! You can tell by how quickly it dissipates just a few feet above the ground. Smoke continues to rise and would be dissipated by the wind once it got above the trees. Now there might be a fire below or this might just be a thermal vent that's heating the ground and causing the steam!
Fire in there, If it was just steaming water the plants and trees around it wouldn't be dead
Interesting... I live in Alberta, Canada. We have some of the largest Coal Deposits, in the entire world... also, we have probably 3-500 coal fires that have been burning for thousands of years. Who knows when, where or how they were started...?
Lightning strikes.. wild fires would be my guess.
Wow! Is this why Canada has all the forest fires going on at one time?
@@robinstewart2506 No... Canada's fires were 95% Arson... Climate change freaks were setting them... I guess you could call that "Man Made Climate Change"... Really, get serious...
@@robinstewart2506Jesus Christ!! 😅😂😅
@JohnDH1977 or maybe it's the fact that coal literally spontaneously lights on fire when exposed to oxygen.
There have been mine fires successfully extinguished using fire retardant pumped through bore holes.
my undergrad capstone was on the centralia fire and coal seam fires as a topic.
Underground fires are not uncommon in coal country- anywhere around the world. This earth is, and always has been, in constant flux. Nothing stays the same forever. But it all keeps going.👍🇺🇸❤️
I got banned from a forum because I had the temerity to say that we are not destroying the planet.
No one asked what I meant
We will be gone, our environment altered to the point of our demise.
The earth abides. It lives on and adapts as it always has.
@@fishyfool you are wise beyond your ears, my friend! You got banned because you spoke the truth, and these days, that’s unacceptable. Keep the faith. Tell it like it is. This climate nonsense is worse than any climate change. These people are fanatics and zealots. I stand with you.
@@fishyfool its like my view that everything we do is perfectly natural. we are simply biological beings produced by this planet, everything we do is using resources of this planet, nothing is truly "artificial" as it came form here, was always here, will always be here in some form or another.
just as the planet had to deal with the cyanobacteria and their toxic gas release.. ie, oxygen...
so it will deal with what we are producing as it produced it itself.
we are just another way that nature expresses itself.
i dont approve of throwing sump oil down the drain, or plutonium laced air, but yeah... long run, nothing fukn matters!
I lived in the Crowsnest Pass back in 77 , and in Coleman the hills were always smoking from underground coal fires . I walked on them and it probably isn’t a good practice lol . Decades later they just seemed to burn themselves out , but there’s still active ones in Sparwood BC about 20 minutes away
Every government agency, no matter how simple or at what level, is worse than useless. Federal, state, and local are all counter productive and should be abolished. There has to be a better way.
There is plenty but it wont make them rich
If you're gonna complain then contribute. What would be better than these government agencies in this case.
Yeah come up with a solution before you advocate the abolishion of anything. “Has to be a better way” is not the way.
Makes me worried for Newcastle in NSW, Australia as it is honeycombed from coal mining that my grandfather even worked in !
newcastle has nothing on wollongong...
seriously, its not an issue. it isnt the coal burning. its the gases associated with the coal that burn. coming up through cracks and fissures...
if you live in newcastle, grab a chunk of that nice shiny black ROCK. it is literally everywhere. (i do a trip every 6 months and go load up on the stuff that falls off the back of trucks.)
now hold a blowtorch on it.
notice how HOT it has to be before it even starts smouldering as volatiles start being released...
now take a walk down to the conveyor belts feeding the coking stations. see how big the piles are.
watch how theres absolutely no concern for fire risk mitigation, as there is no fire risk from COAL.
until its either heated to approximately 250C, or its finely ground up and sprayed into the air...
@@paradiselost9946funny you think a massive fire underground isn't hot enough to keep coal burning? 😂
@@TheMoistBanana wheres the oxygen coming from?
it may be hot. it may be decomposing in an exothermic reaction...
but it isnt belching flames, and it isnt about to explode.
you ever tried lighting a coal fire?
obviously not.
funny. you sound like an unmarried marriage counselor, giving advice about something you know not.
@@paradiselost9946 I've lit plenty of coal fires buddy, they don't take more than 10 minutes to start if you know what you're doing...sounds like your BBQs are subpar, just like your manliness. There are many underground tunnels filled with drafts of oxygen and other gasses that would allow these mines to burn. Maybe educate yourself before you try to prove a point.
@@TheMoistBanana its easy to light when you WANT to. and what do you do? you gotta use those little pebbles at first. the dust. and you gotta use some timber or a firelighter to get it going.
coal does not spontaneously catch alight. not without putting some effort into it. you wont EVER get a 2ton boulder burning by itself.
you BBQ with coal? no wonder youre retarded :)
or maybe you mean BBQ briquettes? not quite the same thing, buddy ;)
The caves must be amazing in this area. Another world underground.
If you ever feel like a failure in life, just remember somebody made the conscious decision to light that mine on fire back in 1962.
Correction they made a decision to burn a trash pile in 1962.
And they burned the trash for years before 1962
After seeing the pasty complexion on the b-roll at 3:09, I knew this must be an independent station. That's a lack-of-tan that can only come from 10,000 hours of ACTUAL JOURNALISM.
If government was serious about reducing CO2 emissions then putting out fires like this would be a good start
That's steam in the video after the three-minute mark, not smoke. Steam is white and dissipates very quickly as it is absorbed into the air. Coal smoke can be white, but will have a yellowish tint when the sun shines through it.
That said, in order for there to be steam coming out of the ground, there has to be fire.
My father grew up in Girardville!
Won't someone please tell him his jacket is too small
Oh I see his shirts are too
You would think that since he's going on television that he would at least make himself somewhat presentable. Looks like the guy is eating faster than he can replace his wardrobe.
BTW.....Blaschak is not responsible for the spread of the fire from Centralia, nor is it responsible to put out a fire they simply discovered. Even if the fire "could" be put out....which it likely cannot.
Here in CO, we have 8-9 active coal mine fires in the mountains that will burn for over 100 years.....this is no big deal and nothing new.
Wow! I've only ever heard about the one story until now!
Actually it is a big deal as it shows the enviro wack jobs are yet again wrong. If we do not dig it up and use it it will burn anyway.
Absolutely correct. I used to drive by one everyday. You can see dry earth after a huge snowstorm along the I-70 corridor in Western Colorado.
Same here in West Virginia we have a few mine fires, you just have to let them burn out, or mine ahead of them to prevent the rest of the seam from burning up.
@@kevinmccurley4573 There are a couple of active ones like that, near Glenwood Springs. Cheers!
Was that the fire started years ago by a garbage dump fire ?
They should start drilling bore holes to spread the fire like they did in the 60s.. Anthrcite coal doesn't need much air to burn or distill but it will make it burn hotter.
I see huge pumps to evacuate water in big mining operations. I guess these old tunnels must stay dry.
If it’s burned past the mine shafts and has gone into the earth proper, then it would be dry
Wow, they'd better address this thing. Too late to cap it now that's its grown so much... They'd have to drown it (and, again, probably too late
for that) or render inert the air feed it, also at this point really hard to do. But it'll be harder if they continue to ignore it.
Iow, it's dangerous not because it exists but becasue it is spreading)
Well pack it up boys. This arm chair internet genius solved it. We can all sleep better knowing this clown is looking over us.
There are some coal fires in Australia and Canada that have been burning for hundreds if not a thousand years
or more. I suspect that this fire has spread much further than the local mining companies suspect.
Pa DEP is an absolute joke! I say that based on my experience with them in the past!
Thanks Again for this Brief but interesting Story of Fire Burning underground in that Mountain for Years.......I knew about this years ago but in a different area but close to this one......Don't remember the area anymore.....Thanks for ALL YOU DO.........GOD BLESS 🙏🙏🙏
I just heard of this first im shocked i never heard anything about this until i saw a short here but if it traveled a town then how big was the Mine and can it erupt into something disastrous and can they make the fire go out this is crazy
The problem with trying to put it out is it's so hot that it will turn water to air and the only way i think that would work is to seal it off or dig it all out
I can't believe they never put this out. I visited the town right across the valley and the old mine there. They worried about it in the 90s. The fire just keeps spreading underground.
It will keep going forever
There is one in Ohio still burning since 1884, was lit by workers on strike.
I understand it may be too large-scale to deal with it, but what about flooding the mines with massive amounts of argon? Its much heavier than the atmosphere and its intert. Removing as much oxygen as possible may eventually cause the smoldering to extinguish right?
So how many gallons of water per hour are being poured in these coal fires? Or is this an all talk and no walk issue?
I like your hiking gear, looks like you are going for an afternoon stroll around the neighborhood, hahaha
Looks like he's gonna blow out of that shirt any minute
@@tiffanyshanley1419 🤣
Coal is finished. People get all nostalgic about their little coal towns. Meanwhile, the windmills have gone up on the ridges right near Centralia.
People talk about pumping water into it. I really don’t know if that would help. You’ve got to understand the ground formations. And air pockets that have formed. But they could probably build a few nitrogen plants and drill into the open pockets that are already known about. Then install casing and pump nitrogen into the ground. This would rob the fire of any oxygen and extinguish it, if done correctly.
Coal fires burn extremely hot pumping water into it would probably cause a steam explosion
Nonsense
The company should have been required to try and stop the fire...this is an environmental disaster that is ongoing.
Make a man made pond, let rain etc fill it up, and then use the water to put out the fire. Problem solved.
Coal fires burn extremely hot, you can’t just put water on it, there’s also flash steam rupture risks, a pseudo China Syndrome
This was already done, they built a giant man made lake and flooded the coal mines under the dump, it failed, and it cost a ton of taxpayer money for nothing.
Not really. Not how it works. Nice thought though.
Why is this fire allowed to continue?
Hahahahaha who is gonna stop it? Are you kidding or seriously that dense?
@@QuartzMatrixed You think that is dense. See Example below
Good golly miss molly, it's fun to watch and we roast marshmallows and weenies anytime we want..
They tried everything Anthracite(Blue Coal ) is almost impossible to put out! It's like the Jet fuel version of Coal. Burns Hot and Clean unlike the dirty coal found elsewhere. I knew people that used to heat with it , once they had it lit they would keep it going year round just enough to keep it going through the summer so they didn't have to relight it for winter it's very hard to put out. So once it's going that's it! It has to run out of fuel there is still plenty left in that ground. I guess another way of looking at it is like a Nuclear Power Plant going critical your not stopping it till it burned itself out. Lots of destruction while we wait. Power plants love this coal It's so clean burning. The rest of the world's coal is dirty because it has a lot of contaminants in it that leave behind way more ash.
Oceanwater, lots of it. @@QuartzMatrixed
Makes you wonder if we could put it out with ligiid CO2
Happening in WV also. What do you think the movie Silent Hill was based on
Hopefully you mean the movie and game silent Hill was based on Centralia, and not the fire in WV. With the way you worded your comment, it seams like you're saying silent Hill was based of the fires in WV which is not the case.
My comment as vague as it may be is accurately open to the interpretation that the fire burning in West Virginia is relative to the one portrayed in the movie. Either way I don’t care enough to argue with you. Glad you know facts :)
Yes there is a couple of coal fires burning in WV, dad talked about always seeing one burning on the side of the highway
If only they could have a underground heat temperature gauge 😕 but they do thermal imaging! Drill holes in the location of hot spots and put it a charge to help extinguishe it
I wonder if they could use lidar and ground penatraiting to try to find its oxygen source, like cave systems linked to the coal deposits
Just like Centralia in the U.S. to little too late.
Blaschak said they'd take care of it, no further action necessary, in 2004, i think, well, sue them for accepting the responsibility and not doing anything about it..... not even notification of proper authorities
Did you watch the whole video... The DEA had to approve them doing anything with it and they didn't get approval, legally they could not dig up or remedy the fire because they didn't have rights to it... and they didn't start it to begin with, they simply stated they planned to dig up and stop the fire in the process of developing new coal mines, since they weren't given the rights to make a new coal mine they couldn't do anything, This is solely a government issue
Imagine not watching the entire video and passing blame. 🤡
Nothing But Trouble.
36.8 means 3 6 mafia points to 8..looking at the Number 8 sideways infinity
it's a shame that Uncle Fester has forgotten about Centralia you would think that he would at least try to help Pennsylvania
I wonder if aviation foam can help put this out if they can get to it cuz I no water won't put it out.
Dish soap and water will put a coal fire out, I’ve worked on several at a coal plant I work at
They tell a Tale, of A Story,of a Fable,of a Legend! The LEGEND OF YOU'RE F*CKED!🤔😑😑😑
My car needs emission control devices... People are the pollution problem, not cars. The graphs showing cars and pollution line up to the world population growth, not cars or emissions. Cars have gotten way more efficient. Explain why the pollution hasnt gone down in correlation? Too many worthless humanss on this planet just wasting recources.
that’s wild
Rob Manch should keep his jacket on.
Find one that fits first... ;-)
@@FunHog69 Screaming buttons on both jacket & shirt.
The EPA official said it was out 2-3 years ago... Someone isn't telling the truth.
The land by shamokin is on fire also. Right behind the WhaleBack
Much of the smoke coming out of the ground towards the end of the video looks more like steam rising from the ground.
Go build a house there and tell us how that works for you.
@@milfordcivic6755what does that have to do with milking ducks in China?
Water won’t put it out.
D.E.P. IS STUPID IF THEY SAY THEY DONT😢 KNOW!
My dog is from Pennsylvania.
load coal!!!!!!
Unacceptable , why do people do such things 😮
All those emissions, all those kilowatts going to waste.
This fire can spread into the mountains of Virginia
Why not influx water into thr mine.... YEAH YOU NEED A LOT OF WATER
They already flooded one with a man made lake, it did nothing.
The atmosphere is a little low on carbon. It’s just Fine!
Just like electric cars run on coal and cause more pollution than traditional combustible cars . And combustible engines dont radiate the occupants.
Local television journalism is so pathetic.
So, we’re surprised that fire spreads 🤷♂️
You just need to reclaim it and seal the ground and it can't get air and it will go out
wow 61 years it took for someone to figure it out 🙄.. You're either a genius or a regard... I'm gonna go with a regard, and here is why... as the fire burns it creates more cracks along with the weight of the ash which gives it even more cracks to allow... wait for it... MORE OXYGEN TO FUEL THE FIRE...... seal the ground... lol that's a good one bud....
Just mine ahead of it and take its fuel source from it
Neither would work. They tried that in ohio, new straightville and it has been burning since 1884
Im going to save the environment by buying a Prius 😂😂😂 its so stupid that we are made to feel like global warming is our fault and we are responsible to go green to make it all better. Since '62 let that sink in, how much CO2 since? Probably more co even.
I wonder if the heat was hot enough and the ground heavy enough to create enough pressure to make diamonds in some of those coal veins??
Nope.
Fire needs air. Plug up all the holes.
Coal fires don’t need much air, it’s physically impossible to plug all the holes
I'm confused? Couldn't they dig a trench to wherever the fire is spreading to to stop it? I mean yeah it will be expensive. But more expensive if they don't?
I don’t think you understand the topography of that region of Pennsylvania, that would involve cutting through mountains and valleys
@@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606 well I think they could at least dig one around most of the main infrastructure🤷
@@shawnfaulkner7889The coal is between 200-500’ below the surface and stretches for miles.
@@ericsaresky6246 ok
It would be much more than a trench, it would be deeper than the Grand Canyon and need to span hundreds of miles. By the time anyone dug that deep it would be beyond the dig site for sure.
Wow such in depth reporting, and such a tough hike! Smfh
I didn't know we had that too like Russia.
Wonder if the new fire extinguishing explosives would work here??
Easiest solution is to mine it from the other direction and remove its fuel source before it can use it
I don't see a fire...
Burning coal is totally safe. Unless you light it on fire underground and it stays lit for 60 years.
Or 140 years like here in ohio
"no carbon credits for YOU"
Seems like pangomni enterprises wants more land...
Market a mosquito free campground.
Maybe we can get Al, Greta and Hillary to foot the bill on putting it out.
0:39 his suit jacket is way too small. can't he afford clothes that fit?
It did fit when he bought it 10 years ago
Does any one know about how much CO2 has been releast currently or cumulatively?
I used a thermal camera back in the 90s and I saw the entire mountain leading in to the old town was HOT
It will be an emergency in Ashland very soon. As soon as next year they will be facing toxic gases coming into their basements as the fire spreads under their city.
I remember when this fire started.
It is a disgrace that in all this time no one put it out.
And we are going to lose Ashland just like we lost Centralia.
Nice girdle homie!
Any other time the govt would bulldoze a mountain to plant artificial flowers
Good old silent hill
They need to drill several well holes and fill them with water to submerge these open cavities with water
They tried that, didn't work
Seems like a great place to put a geothermal electric plant!! Whoda thunk. Someone call elon.