The Mouth of Hell
The Silent Hill movie was probably based on this town. Talk about second hand smoke!
It would seem to me that with the value of coal, and the amount still underground, given the level of technology we have today, shouldn’t we be able to extinguise the underground fire and mine the rest of that coal? Obviously, I’m not a “science guy” but can someone explain to me why they just abandoned the area instead of trying to extract the valuable resources (besides the people, that is!) first?
Posted by on 03/16 at 11:33 AMI don’t know. They could pour water down those pipes, but the question I have is where does the coal get the oxygen needed to burn
Posted by on 03/16 at 12:39 PMThe May 2005 Smithsonian had an interesting article on the Centralia fire. Short answer to John’s question: too big, too expensive. They tried for 20 years to put it out and the state of Pennsylvania ran out of money for it. The last proposal (digging a huge pit) would have cost over $600 million (in the early 80s).
As for water, coal fires burn at up to 1000 degrees F, and the area under Centralia is too complex and well-drained for the water to stay put, anyway…
Posted by on 03/16 at 01:50 PM
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