Mine Fire Control

[Music] [Music] this is the site of an underground coal mine fire in our nation's appalachian region [Music] [Music] smoke and noxious fumes brewed in underground burning beds of coal seep up from a thousand fractures in the earth in a land unfit for human habitation it is a wasted land where fuel resources are being slowly consumed [Music] where property values are being lost [Music] and people's lives and danger [Applause] [Music] elsewhere in appalachia this was once the site of an underground coal mine fire but today it is controlled while the community secure in its safety goes about the business of living not long ago this entire community was a place of fear today all that has changed [Music] meanwhile this particular fire continues to burn laying its lethal touch upon acres and acres of land upon hundreds of homes coal mine fires are as old as mining itself usually kept under control by the operating companies but when operations ceased and properties were abandoned sometimes these fires broke through underground retaining barriers and got away a common cause of mine fires rubbish dumped into abandoned stripping pits when ignited can communicate the fire to the underlying coal bed of the more than 200 underground coal mine fires in america's coal producing regions about half are in appalachia in its bituminous and anthracite coal fields anthracite for generations the premium fuel the economic starting point for the development of a young nation's industrial growth [Music] p bowen's big hole in the ground some nine years ago mr frank had a dream and when he awakens he loudly did scream skim milk for john tucker but i'll have the cream or i'll sink a big shaft to the great mammoth scene to the great mammoth seam the great mammoth by 1917 this region was producing 100 million tons of anthracite yearly whole cities had been built over coal mines coal had built company and private homes had given employment to 180 000 men fathers and sons and son sons going hundreds of feet down into the mines meanwhile coal had become the backbone of an economy for more than one million people in this region anthracite ideal for home heating anthracite for steel anthracite to help fight world war one and a generation later a second world war but since world war ii anthracite has fought a losing battle with oil gas and soft coal its production dipping some ten percent each year until today only a few large anthracite mines are active though still an important factor in the area's economy though the loss of anthracite's markets had its impact the people refused to surrender to adversity on their own initiative they brought in other industries creating new payrolls they moved forward in many directions working to eradicate scars imposed on the land by over a century and a half of mining [Music] some time the interior department's bureau of mines with its responsibilities for conservation of our nation's mineral resources has worked closely with appropriate state and local agencies to control mine fires in 1965 the appalachian regional development act made sufficient funds available for an all-out cooperative federal state and local program to combat underground coal mine fires in the appalachian region in a bureau of mines anthracite field office engineers plan the strategy to contain these fires the elements required to sustain an underground mine fire can be represented by a triangle fuel oxygen and heat deprive the fire of one or more of these elements and it can be controlled in this area the underground mine fire has been controlled by removing the fuel it fed on elsewhere deprival of oxygen or lowering the temperature of the burning coal bed may be the best method as man pits his mind and his technology against an insidious menace he cannot see in 1915 a miner's oil lamp left hanging on a wooden timber set started a fire that eventually spread throughout the entire mine including underlying coal beds [Music] when adjacent mine workings were abandoned retaining seals deteriorated permitting the fire to break through and spread into the idle workings this particular fire as determined by u.s bureau of mines engineers has burned into three coal beds generating heat and poisonous gases that threaten not only the town immediately above the fire but adjoining communities as well twenty miles away there is another underground mine fire this one caused by ignition of trash dumped against a bank of waste materials from the mining of coal soon this fire spread to one of the underlying coal beds and has been burning there for many years its disastrous effects becoming progressively worse this is still another coal mine fire one threatening a large urban area it began in 1946 when exposed faces of coal beds in an abandoned strip pit were ignited by burning refuse efforts were made to extinguish the fire by stripping out the remaining coal thus removing the fuel one of the elements required to sustain combustion however this technique was only temporarily successful for all the fuel was not taken out indeed once given life an underground coal fire is tenacious feeding upon itself hidden from human eyes as it consumes all available fuel spreading through a bed of coal this one endangered hundreds of homes an underground coal mine fire is like a reverberatory furnace that retains its heat within its refractory lining in this case the surrounding rock strata producing temperatures of more than one thousand degrees fahrenheit a byproduct of this combustion is carbon monoxide gas seeping up through cracks and fissures in the rock strata because the underground fire often consumes pillars of coal that support the surface the land sometimes caves in causing scenes like these [Music] controlling such a fire requires sacrifices [Music] frequently people must endure the hardship of evacuating their homes and relocating in some cases giving up family roots that have grown generations deep [Music] at the request of local authorities through the state and the appalachian regional commission the federal bureau of mines is now combating these and other mine fires its engineers working closely with personnel of state and local agencies the federal government provides on a matching fund basis up to 75 percent of the cost of controlling the fire and the state the remaining 25 first the boundaries of the fire often several hundred feet below the surface must be determined to delineate these boundaries boreholes usually six inches in diameter are drilled through the overlying rock into the hot area below [Music] steel casing is inserted to permit drilling through surface dirt broken ground or mine openings each hole is fitted with a steel cap to prevent air from entering the mine cavity and to keep noxious fumes and gases from discharging into the atmosphere [Music] where there are built up areas over old mine workings four holes must be drilled wherever possible on public or private property periodically a thermocouple with extension wires is lowered into the hole deep into the mine cavity in order to obtain a temperature reading old mine timbers and other combustible material in an abandoned mine can under certain conditions ignite at a temperature of less than 500 degrees fahrenheit the burning wood can then ignite the adjoining coal at this hole the temperature may be lower but at this one it is higher reaching the point where coal itself takes fire about 900 degrees fahrenheit [Music] at this one it is over 1000 degrees wherever the underground temperature varies significantly above normal mine temperature combustion is indicated by systematically drilling enough boreholes the perimeter of the underground mine fire can be delineated [Music] but with few surface clues for guidance drilling also has its problems [Music] highly sophisticated techniques are now being explored to improve the capability for pinpointing an underground mine fire [Music] as the fire area is being determined gas samples are taken at regular intervals to be sent to a bureau of mines laboratory for analysis periodic temperature readings gas samples and other evaluations help engineers follow the events taking place far below the earth's surface in burning coal beds to combat the underground mine fire various methods are used each designed alone or in combination to control a given fire [Music] for example loading out removing combustible materials another technique involves digging a trench around the fire and filling it with non-combustible materials thus setting up a barrier between the fire and its fuel sometimes the fire is smothered from above by a slurry of non-combustible materials flushed through bore holes to halt the circulation of air where feasible a slurry may be fed directly into the fire area let's see now how these techniques are being applied under the supervision of bureau of mines engineers to control underground mine fires in the appalachian region first the fire area in this project alone exploratory and access boreholes such as this have been drilled into mine voids a total of about six and one half miles of bore holes deep below the surface the active fire area is approximately one half mile square fed by air entering through tunnels of the old mine workings tunnels leading to overlying coal beds that slope downward to the valley through the boreholes sand will be flushed from the surface into these tunnels to seal them tight in addition at each border of the mine fire a wall of non-combustible materials will be erected to prevent the spread of the fire up and down the valley a slurry of sand and water will be flushed into mine voids to create artificial barriers 200 feet wide at one side 1000 feet long and on the other side 2500 feet long thus confined to its present perimeter and deprived of its lifeblood oxygen the fire will be contained [Music] for two years thereafter the mine fire area will be monitored by the federal bureau of mines then for several years by the state or local authority further mining in the area is prohibited in our second instance to prevent a fire from spreading under a highly urbanized district a trench is dug to remove the fuel and then backfilled to cut off the fire's advance [Music] the trench must go to a great depth in order to get all the fuel out and cut off the fire meanwhile to help handle the hot material the deepening trench at intervals is quenched to dig a trench such as this dislocation of people and property is sometimes necessary [Music] [Music] when completed the trench will be backfilled and graded creating a man-made barrier to guard a city and its people from further encroachment by the underground mine fire in the future creating a desirable site overlooking the city for homes for schools and for industry [Music] in still another minefire area all potential fuel sources have been removed both burning and non-burning materials [Music] so [Music] elsewhere in appalachia in its bituminous region coal beds lie flat close to the surface in these coal fields to contain an underground mine fire a technique called surface sealing is generally practiced sometimes together with combinations of trenching and flushing first the fire area is cleared of brush and trees with roots and all other woody material removed the cut is then made down to the fire area the cut will be backfilled with a nerf material later the surface will be graded and sealed with the surface compacted to eliminate every crack or fissure through which air might be admitted to the fire area a technique which in effect serves to smother the fire finally the area is reseeded and fertilized hydraulically the turf creates an effective fire seal while providing green open spaces for future constructive use once an underground coal mine fire is deprived of its fuel or oxygen or its heat it is contained and the menace to public health and safety is eliminated security for the people returns property values are restored and the land can be put back to worthwhile use i lived here for 50 years and mine fire was for about 25 years you could smell the gas and fumes from the fire and i think to have the fire under control and i feel much secure safe now this uh my fire affected our property value before and now that uh it's under control that the values went up and the younger generation figured and staying longer than they were did before sticking better to their jobs instead of moving out of the uh community building new homes in here and uh it's a chance of getting more people around here to build more homes to economies fire being out this region of appalachia home for millions of our population is making rapid economic strides attracting new industries new workers new families elsewhere in appalachia however there are underground coal mine fires still to be contained and the fight against this menace continues as bureau of mines engineers cooperate with state and local officials planning strategy to control this great public enemy the underground coal mine fire this is a program to protect our people and assure our nation that one of the earth's greatest bounties its mineral resources will not be lost for this and future generations a program to restore faith in this region to people and industry to stimulate a new cycle of growth for the prosperity of the appalachian region of america [Music] [Applause] you