130 year (!) old fire is finally put out

[shamrock_uk]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/3978329.stm

130-year-old Chinese fire put out A fire that broke out more than 100 years ago at a Chinese coalfield has finally been extinguished, reports say. In the last four years, firefighters have spent $12m in efforts to put out the flames at Liuhuanggou colliery, near Urumqi in Xinjiang province. While ablaze, the fire burned up an estimated 1.8m tons of coal every year, according to China's official Xinhua news agency. Local historians said the fire first broke out in 1874, Itar-Tass reported. Hou Xuecheng, head of the Xinjiang Coalfield Firefighting Project Office, said the Liuhuanggou fire was the largest among eight major coalfield fire areas in Xinjiang. The burning coal emitted 100,000 tons of harmful gases - including carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide - and 40,000 tons of ashes every year, Mr Hou told Xinhua. The continuing blaze is also thought to have caused environmental damage to the region. Xinjiang accounts for 1.8 trillion tons, or 40.6%, of China's total coal reserves. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...ic/3978329.stm Published: 2004/11/03 11:22:56 GMT © BBC MMIV

[Lucern]

What the...? Makes me wonder how it finally went out. Did it run out of coal? I suppose they just got used to it.

[Djinn Raffo]

I think some of the Ghats of Varanasi have been burning for hundreds of years.

[johnny]

Sheesh, commie firefighters aren't exactly very active, are they ? Don't tell me they actually get a paycheck as well ?

The oracle at Delphi was/is thought to have been a natural occurance of burning natural gas....and I know of one place in West Virginia where the coal seam under a mountain has been burning for as long as I have been alive.

Its great that this blaze in China was extinguished...and I agree, would be nice to know what put it out.

[Timber Loftis]

I've seen landfills that got to burning and fires that lasted for 1 year or more. Once a fire goes underground, it's hard to do much about it.

[The Hierophant]

I can just imagine the CCP propaganda team, furiously scribbling away, coming up with news statements about how this extinguishing is a great victory in the development of prosperity for the people of the Republic!

[Kakero]

Wow!such a long time already. only now the fire went off? what a joke! hmmm..why did it went off? I can't imagine the chinese firefighters successfully did something to put it off.

[Sir Kenyth]

Underground coal fires are VERY difficult to extinguish. You can't snuff them and even damp coal will still burn. It's a chain reaction. You have to find some way to rapidly lower the temp of the hot coal or remove the fuel source. Flooding the mine from a nearby water source is one of the best solutions, if possible.

[shamrock_uk]

Originally posted by Kakero: Wow!such a long time already. only now the fire went off? what a joke! hmmm..why did it went off? I can't imagine the chinese firefighters successfully did something to put it off.

Whatever it was, it cost them $12million, so it must have been rather large-scale