Western Blazes: Are Under ground Coal Fires Responsible!

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Western Blazes

The cause of Colorado's Marshall Fire is yet unknown, although at least two other flames in the last 20 years have been linked to coal mine fires that spread to the surface. Coal mine fires, according to experts, are becoming a global concern.

Are Underground Coal Fires Responsible!

An Arvada firefighter walks back to the firetruck as a fast moving wildfire swept through the area in the Centennial Heights neighborhood on December 30, 2021 of Louisville, Colorado. State officials estimated some 600 homes had already been lost in multiple areas around Boulder County and were fueled by winds that gusted upwards of 100 miles per hour at times during the day. (Photo by Marc Piscotty/ Getty Images)

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In 1883, a fire raging in an underground Colorado coal field produced so much smoke that the scene was compared to burning volcanoes, and the state's first mining inspector declared the flame "impossible to extinguish."

Two fires smolder over 140 years later in the now-abandoned coal field outside Boulder, the same area where a wildfire last month burned over 1,000 houses and buildings and killed at least one person.

The source of the December fire that became Colorado's most damaging in history is still unknown, although Boulder County officials have claimed that abandoned coal mines in the area are being investigated as one of the numerous probable reasons, along with power lines, human activity, and other possibilities.

Could a fire have been sparked by a lump of smoldering coal? Yes, according to history, with at least two Colorado fires blamed on mine fires that spread to the surface in the last 20 years. Slow-burning coal reserves exacerbated by winds triggered two fires on and near the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana this summer, burning a total of 267 square miles.

As per data from the federal Office of Surface Mining, at least 259 underground mine fires had been found burning in over a dozen states as of September last year. According to experts and government authorities, there are hundreds, if not thousands, more unrecorded fires blazing in coal seams which have not been mined ever.

Such fires are an issue all across the world, particularly in India, Australia, and South Africa. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, an estimated 10 million to 200 million tons of coal are burned or rendered inaccessible each year in China, the world's largest coal producer.

Experts predict smoldering coal fires will continue to be a hazard as climate change causes drought throughout wide regions of the United States West, which is currently experiencing longer and more severe fire seasons.

According to Jurgen Brune, a Colorado School of Mines engineering professor, such flames can be started by lightning, humans, or even spontaneously at temperatures as low as 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Many are impossible to extinguish, steadily burning underground due to a limited amount of oxygen present in the coal, he explained.

"Most flames are put out by covering them up and attempting to deprive them of oxygen. "It's not for coal fires," remarked Dr. Brune.

Underground coal seams burn erratically and can erupt to the surface without warning decades after a fire has started,

The Hazelwood coal mine fire. Photo: Keith Packenham, CFA. monash.edu

As per data from the federal Office of Surface Mining, at least 259 underground mine fires had been found burning in over a dozen states as of September last year.

he said. "It's like predicting an earthquake," Dr. Brune explained. "They aren't getting any closer to forecasting them with all of the technology we have today." The same can be said of a coal fire."

The flames release toxic mercury and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, as well as sinkholes, which form as the ground's surface collapses into the charred voids beneath it. The smoke and subsidence from a coal fire that started beneath Centralia, Pennsylvania, became so awful that more than 1,000 people were forced to relocate at a cost of $42 million. As per the Office of Surface Mining database, the estimated future cost of controlling the 200 known abandoned mine blazes in the United States is about $900 million.

Following last summer's fires, local officials in Montana intend to use a federal funding to map out smoldering seams across the state's southeast in the coming months. Controlling them will be challenging, and it might cost at least $300,000 per site, according to Bobbi Vannattan of the Rosebud Conservation District, which is assisting with the mapping.

"The difficulty with coal seam fires is that we have no idea how deep or wide they are until we get in there and start excavating," she explained. As of 2019, officials in Colorado were monitoring at least 38 underground coal fires. Carrie Haverfield, a representative for the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, would not say which mines were being probed in connection with the Dec. 30 blaze or what triggered officials' attention, which was originally reported by KUSA-TV.

Authorities made at least three attempts to put out or minimize the damage caused by the fire that a state mine inspector first discovered more than a century ago at the abandoned Marshall Mine, which is located on park territory near where investigators suspect the new fire started.

As per the U.S. Geological Survey report, the first occurred in 1982, when federal officials bore into the earth to see how far the fire had spread and then attempted to smother it with a 2-foot covering of dirt.

A small brush fire in 2005 was connected to a hot vent from the fire. According to the Office of Surface Mining, Boulder crews cleaned plants from the area while

"MOST FLAMES ARE PUT OUT BY COVERING THEM UP AND ATTEMPTING TO DEPRIVE THEM OF OXYGEN. "IT'S NOT FOR COAL FIRES. IT'S LIKE PREDICTING AN EARTHQUAKE. THEY AREN'T GETTING ANY CLOSER TO FORECASTING THEM WITH ALL OF THE TECHNOLOGY WE HAVE TODAY." THE SAME CAN BE SAID OF A COAL FIRE."

Jurgen Brune Colorado School of Mines engineering professor