EVER-BURNING FIRES

Southland Times, Issue 19291, 9 July 1924, Page 9

EVER-BURNING FIRES

MANY - COAL MINES ABLAZE. FLAMES a century old. A TREMENDOUS WASTE. Tipton, in Staffordshire, has been troubled recently by underground fires, which after burning in a disused colliery for some years are now making themselves manifest above-ground. In one part of the town flames and smoke have been observed coming through the roadway. In some parts of the country there are mine fires which have been burning for periods of a quarter of a century and upwards, and in Ayrshire, in Scotland, one such subterranean conflagration was started soon after Waterloo. The fire, like that at Tipton, has made its way above-ground and earned for the district the name of the Burning Hills of Dailly. Near by there is “the steaming brig,” the name given to another coalpit fire which has been in action for seventy years. It was first started by the carelessness of an engineman. Dudley is another area which for many years has been affected in this manner, and indeed much of the town’s foundations are believed to be on fire. Thirty years or more ago gas from this burning mine forced its way to the surface and there was a general exodus from houses and factories. Within the last six or seven years there was a repetition of this occurrence, with the result that many people were overcome by the fumes. Such slow-moving conflagrations have, resulted in many disasters, the flames making their way to adjoining mines where men are w’orking, and igniting coal gas. Such was the cause of an exploson at Cadeby Colliery at Doncaster, and another in a Leicestershire colliery. To attempt to coinbat such mine fires once they have obtained a firm hold is worse than useless. As the coal burns out the ground sinks, causing fissures in the earth, through which the fire receives a new supply of oxygen. In the case of a mine fire which for 37 years has been raging under the ground between Shawnes and New Straitsville, Ohio, brick walls were built across the mine tunnels in the hope of smothering the fire. When this did not succeed, double walls were erected, also unavailingly. The fight was taken up by the State of Ohio, and for three years water was pumped on to the fire continuously. At the end of that period no impression had been made, and it was declared that the intense heat turned the water into steam before it reached the coaL To-day the fire extends over an area of some seventeen square miles. About 15,000,000 tons of coal have been destroyed by it, yet experts of the Ohio Bureau of Mines say that it is just beginning and that it may be expected to burn for a century or more. The disaster has necessitated the abandonment of a whole village. What man failed to do in America Nature succeeded in accomplishing in England. To quell a mine fire in the Tawd Valley walls over 300 feet thick were built. They were, however, found to be practically useless. At last, when all hope had been given up of checking the demon, a nearby river became flooded, water pouring into the workings, and victory was won.