Why Pennsylvania's coal mine fire problems are here to stay forever
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- Fires in coal mines have been a problem for Pennsylvania for decades. These fires are not only dangerous, but they also keep the mine from being profitable. We'll talk about the dangers of these fires, how they happen, and what can be done to prevent them.
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Hey Ryan! About 10 minutes into the video; when discussing the Centralia, PA mine fire, you show an article about a gas pipeline explosion that happened in Centralia, MISSOURI in 1982. Just wanted to point that out so no one gets confused. Great video as usual though.
While we're here, I have a suggestion for a future video I think you would enjoy making. The Cherokee Caves in St. Louis would make a great video for this channel. :)
Extremely cordial conduct sir
Pennsylvania native here: I'm actually working on a documentary of the infamous Centralia coal fire disaster, reenacted with stop-motion LEGO animation!
as long as you find a you use everything is awesome as the theme ill watch
Same here.... I'd love to see what you do with your idea!
dude.... you need to post that when you get it finished. I would definitely watch that
@@jasonconrad4314 Thanks! Yeah, I planned on releasing it this summer, but it's being delayed for various reasons. It'll be hot!
Pittsburgh native, good luck with your project...Go Steelers!!!😢👍👻
Hello from Australia I have climbed burning mountain and its thought a lightning strike thousands of years ago started it ,the early explorers though it was an active volcano until they made their way to the site .You can actually look down through cracks on the surface and see the coal burning .
Terrifyingly fascinating
Good on you for talking of the Laurel Run Mine Fire, no one ever mentions it. It'll burn for decades yet.
I live close to Centralia PA and I have also left a mark on the graffiti highway. The town of Centralia is almost a ghost town but there are a few houses that are still lived in to this day because the owners simply refuse to move
Holy shit, are you serious??
R.i.p to the graffiti highway it's been covered with dirt.
@@inr63 If you go there, it’s not all that impressive. Realistically most of the town could have stayed. They may have had some issues with smoke and gas for awhile but the area is pretty clear now. For the most part I didn’t see any major cave in issues. Here and there perhaps.
Just in case anyone reads this Centralia PA is not an interesting place to go anymore. It's mostly quad trails and the graffiti highway has been covered in dirt mounds by the property owner
Only the beginning. Still plenty of open highway surface left.
@@PWN_Nation Not really its an ugly hike over muddy dirt mounds with barely a foot of open pave and you find no open space till 10 - 15 minutes in. Cops hound the place cause people park at the cemetery and graffiti is making its way onto tombstones which is really wack. I mean if the property owner of the highway spend thousands to dump dirt on it a few years back I'd say that was probably the beginning of the end
Turn the entire area into a geothermal power generator. Trap the CO2 for industrial use or sequestration
I'm from like 45 minutes north of there lol I live by concrete city and old rail company town. My great grandpa died in the Avondale hill mine fire. My buddy lives on Avondale hill and I'm like a 5 minute drive from there. Alot of my family toiled in the dark and I'm proud to be from their line.
Your family is in India? They are Hindi? That is where _Alot_ is.
"If you ever used coal for a grill..." whatever you cooked probably came out disgusting. The stuff you cook with is "charcoal", traditionally made by heating wood in an oxygen-depleted environment, although in the more common "briquette" form, is made from sawdust that undergoes the same process and is then chemically bound into a convenient shape. When coal is heated in an oxygen-depleted environment, the resulting material is referred to as "coke" and may be used as a higher quality fuel or industrial carbon source than the original coal.
I instinctively gagged when he said that, lol. I was going to say the same thing, but you beat me to it, and provided more detail than I would have.
pizza from a coal fired oven comes out great
@@imchris5000 I have to assume they're using "charcoal" and casually referring to it as "coal". I suppose you could use coal if you isolated the food from the smoke, but it doesn't seem like it would be worth the trouble.
@@timewave02012 coal fired pizza is old school pizza its done in an oven with the coal piled in the back burning. the high heat and fast cooking makes for great pizza
Briquettes can also be made from Brown coal!
The Centralia fire is referenced in the dark ride Black Diamond at Knoebels Amusement Resort in Elysburg, PA.
The mountains in the north east Pennsylvania are still on fire and very close to cities and no one is the wiser.
I can't believe that someone hasn't created a generator to utilize the heat from this fire to generate electricity.
Exactly, if I lived close I could come up with bunches of fun experiments.
Thats a pretty unworkable idea
@@earlgrae You're not saying experiments are "unworkable ideas", are you?
@@ericv8319 But harnessing the power of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado river is? And that was done way back in 1931.
Actually the fire not under the actual town anymore it moved to areas outs side of the town I've been told
There is one burning in Ohio from miners on strike pushed a burning mine car into the mine setting it ablaze this is in the hocking hills area .
Oh, that fire could be put out, but it would not be cheap to do. As you stated fire needs three things to burn. Take one away, and it wont burn. So the easiest thing to take away is air. So pump in enough liquid nitrogen, you would not only starve the fire of air, but also would cool things down. Just a thought.
The massive area of the fire and the insulating properties of the ash left over from burning would mean you’d need a lot of liquid nitrogen. A lot of the liquid nitrogen would also boil off very quickly due to the heat of the air temperature ground between where people are and where the fire is. Lastly, liquid nitrogen would not prevent the fire from restarting if even the smallest piece of coal is still hot, while blocking the tunnels would continue to choke off air to the fire.
Fire already left town heading for somewhere else, believe it's called ash something.......but it's about 30 miles from it, probably be 50 years before it becomes next. JP vids showed how many steam inlets was used to pump water in, it was quite a few. Even the original opening fills up with rain water, this thing just chugged everyone right out of town, now on to the next one, unfortunately.
Shit, dump the Millions of gallons of drilling fluids that are still to come as We just keep drilling on, I'd rather know that is where attempts are being made for future mine fires and to not have the drilling fluids being dumped in Susquehanna river, West Branch as well, being said is why are we allowing deep injection wells to be used for the waste product that is upon us, but not on an abandoned mine fire... Am I missing something like a brain, to the present problem.
Grew up on Giant's Despair in Laurel Run. Massive mine fire there. Burning longer than Centralia too.
That one time they empty a lake into a mine and it's only a non-flammable salt mine.
My Father and Grandfather both worked in the Coal Mines near Centraila. My Grandfather lived in what was called The Patch, also called Burynsville was right by Centraila on Rt.61 North .
Anthracite, otherwise known as steam coal for its superior burning properties.
I can remember Carbondale/ Scranton Pa. area smoldering as a kid! This was in the early to mid 70’s.
Back in the thirties they successfully extinguished a mine fire in Ohio by digging down and building a firewall. This fire had continually been burning since the 1880's. Perhaps this approach was not practicable in Centralia's circumstances, but I wonder.
I worked for a retail heating coal and oil dealer. There was a rail siding with a grate and a hopper car would dump the coal into the grate and a conveyor belt would take the coal up to the top of the 80-foot silo. Eventually we stopped selling coal and the coal silos were torn down.
I live in Schuylkill County Pa. Many in my family died in mine accidents
Sara Motley is a cutie huh?
Me and my wife visited her relatives in Pensilvania back in the late seventies where it seemed like all the men worked in the mines and all the women were nurses.
At night you could see the fires in the distance.
This comment reads like a small paragraph in the beginning chapter of a novel. 🤍
In Australia there is an underground coal mine located under castle hill and has been burning since the late 1930’s there also a sealed mine in the centre of Ipswich that was leaking toxic gas
The Wyoming Valley has to many mine disasters to name lol Avondale mine fire, the knox mine disaster when they dug to close to the susquehanna River and flooded miles of mine. Countless cave ins, young boys dieing in the breaker houses from losing limbs.
Don't forget the Williamstown fire in dauphin county.
Much obliged.
uh... questions
the video said that electricity was cheaper alternatives of coal. but didn't electricity generator also used coal? at least in my country they did. so how does electricity replace coal when coal needed for making electricity?
pls enlighten me
I remember one about when they dug into Susquehanna and had to fill it with cool cars
That was the Knox Mine disaster.
The Knox Mine Disaster is what pretty much killed the Anthracite coal industry in Northeast PA. This happened because they were "robbing the pillars", and did not leave enough material to support the massive weight of the river above. Eventually, the river came crashing through the ceiling and very few made it out alive. Most mines in the valley are interconnected in one way or another, and the resulting flood caused mines throughout the area to become inaccessible. It even caused widespread issues with basements flooding. The Army Corps Of Engineers was called in to drill a bore hole in Old Forge to manipulate the water table and relieve this issue. My grandfather worked in the Knox mine, but was not at work when disaster struck.
In Pennsylvania, everything between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia is "Arkansas."*
*With worse roads.
Yea, right, like Phila and Pittsburgh are Gardens Of Eden! :P
You never did explain how underground fires get their oxygen. It would seem that blocking all vents and holes would put out the fire eventually.
In coal mines coal dust is a major source of fire the dust will start burning at room temperature, this is why they mix it with pulverized limestone.
RE at 3:45 Electricity is not a Fuel Alternative. It is merely a transmission method.The energy comes from something used to MAKE the electricity.
Centralia fire still burns, but they say the fire has moved on and is no longer under the town.
a mildly interesting thing is there is no more coal being formed after bacteria began breaking down lignin, after that you only get much smaller bits of coal forming from peat bogs
Coal is a gift from mother nature.
So is plutonium... So is arsenic...
Yes it's a gift. But do we treat it as such? And do we respect the depth of its power and its potential hazards? The answer is NO Coal is only looked at as a money maker by companies that sell to the Electric Companies.
I can't follow what the hell you're talking about. You're talking about a mine fire in Carbondale. Mentioning that in 1952 the first deaths happened, while simultaneously displaying news articles about Centralia, and that didnt start until 1962. And then up pops an article about a gas main fire in Centralia, Missouri. Did you just find some random images of articles and quick tell some video editor to just move a bunch of articles around the screen, without even reading what they were about?
3:47 electricity isn't an energy source.
I was always curious of visiting Centralia one day.
There's barely anything left. I was there a few months ago, and it's almost entirely overgrown plants with empty, abandoned streets running through them. The cemeteries are still intact, as is the old church on the mountains on the edge of town.
@@baron_von_brunk I'm really interested in that eerie, smoky, abandoned, horror vibe. It's nice to hear the cemeteries are still holding up.
Don't waste your time, check.out concrete city instead
Shout out from Nanticoke PA . 1ST generation that didn't have to go down in that god forsaken hell.
If it gonna burn for 100 years....make a geo thermal elec plant out of it. Make it useful.
I live about 20 miles from the burning mountain in Australia..
It's a pretty hot property market in that area.
I live in copper country.
In my town, a fire started, underground in the 1950s I think. Anyway, it's still going.
Apparently it is nowhere as significant as the Centralia fire, however.
All coal is formed of vegetation that was buried during The Flood 4,370 years ago.
The pockets of methane are also from the buried vegetation.
So, no plans for geothermal plants in Centralia any time soon?
Coal heat is a dirty business. We lived in a double house heated with a coal burning furnace in the basement. As kids, we used to use the coal chute for a slide, much to our Mom’s displeasure. The house was always dusty in winter so the walls needed washing down or repapering every spring, and had that vague scent of coal gas. It was the children’s job to sift the ashes over the rusty 50 gallon drums in the back yard and to bring in the milk pail of unburned clinkers. One of the boys was always the switch from Babsha for teasing her little pug dog, Fritzie. They’d make as if to play with his favorite old shoe, but toss it right in the middle of the heating grate in the front room. Fritzie was afraid to walk on the grate, so he’d run around the outside of it and bark and bark. The boys thought it was funny, but Babsha said it was plain mean-spirited. She’d order the offending party or parties to return the shoe and then she’d take to the switch on the backs of their legs. 😊
My deepest sympathies Mount Carmel Pennsylvania
I do love the mountain Air. ☦️🙏
As retired coalminer of india enjoyed a lot.
The guys that started this fire have a great legacy. Few people create something that lasts nearly forever.
One solution come to mind. Run a pipeline to the Ocean and pump that salt water into key area's there by flooding out the fire. I figure it may take 10 to 30 years of constant pumping to make sure that it never again is reignited. It may be expensive now but the cost later will be catastrophic for when (Plausibly) the fire eventually spreads through veins in the earth's crust to other cities.
I visited Centralia, PA two years ago. There was no evidence of smoke coming out of any cracks in the ground, and one of the locals told me the fire is pretty much extinguished.
It's moved outside the town it's following old coal seems.
if it cant be put out i wonder if it could be used for ground source heat?
I don't get it.....why can't you flood the mine with water?
hook up water pipes into the holes some how have them from a lake then that could help
Mine subsidence is another leftover yet ongoing problem.
The Knox Mine disaster is what killed coal mining in Pa.
Yeah it did, those poor men trapped down there with the suskie pouring in on them 😔
Keep mining the coal. It's being burned even if we don't use it.
Just a note too: The coal used in modern times to be made into coke for use in the iron and steel industry is bituminous, not anthracite. Bituminous is harder coal. In Pennsylvania, this coal more commonly found in veins in the western part of the state, versus the northeastern Anthracite.
Bituminous is soft coal. Anthracite is hard coal.
@@Bob68z28 Ones better for steal the other is better for burning in boilers!
Wasn't there supposed to be a coal fire on the Titanic that may have weakened the metal or somehow increased the damage that scraping the iceberg did ?
That was the same company as the titanic but different boat it didn’t sink tho just cought fire
That coal keeps lots of people pretty warm too, and I agree it's dirty, destroys lungs from mining burning all the way around, if only it was cleaner, grew up all around it.
Ya, not a huge fan saying its impossible to do anything. Fire like everything has a set amount of rules.For example if a fire isn't able to access oxygen. It will go out.
So, America's mine fires are worse than all our cars.
Thanks America, i don't think your lawyers will save you this time.
having seen its always sunny in Philadelphia i say strip mine the entire place truck in some sand and start over.
Which episode is that in? I have to see that!
So question in trying to extinguish these mines why was co2 or carbon monoxide pumped into the mines suffocating the fires. Maybe it would require too much of the stuff or maybe it would be too dangerous but it seems like it should work if the air being pumped in is allowing the fire to continue why not pump air in that will drown the fires
Many attempts were made to extinguished fires, but it's just so massive and inside the earth that you would need to encapsulate the whole area
What a horrible place to work.
did anyone try flooding a mine with water?
You forgot coal dust. It lights over a wider range of dispersion than methane.
what would happen if it were flooded under a lake
...well you could try stopping a nuke down the shaft, but that might make it worse.
Steve
Heat is not a required element of a fire. An ignition source is, but not heat. You can have a fire in the middle of Antarctica if you have an ignition source, so heat is not a requirement.
A diesel engine needs heat to ignite the fuel.
Heat is a requirement for fire. Water is used to extinguish some types of fires because the heat energy from the fire will be put into evaporating the water, rather than accelerating or sustaining the burning of the fuel.
Water underground, 1000 ft deep. 1800s.. they found a old underground civilization. When did they come 1700s. Not adding up
Pump seawater or similar into it
Am I correct in assuming that - even though it was the cause of the companies - all those displaced people had to come up with their own means to get out when they could no longer stay?
And if so, I wonder if an enormous suit was brought against the companies responsible, so that they could pay out for the irreparable destruction caused to both the ecosystem and to so many lives.
Smgdh
Who are you going to sue? The Centralia underground fire began in 1962, perhaps earlier. No one lives in Centralia any more. Nearly all 1,500 homeowners accepted a $42 million buy-out plan offered by Congress when it became clear that noxious gases and sinkholes beneath the anthracite deposits were worsening. The five residents who refused to leave agreed to an out-of-court settlement that allowed them to remain until 2013. Thus, if there is no plaintiff, there is no cause of action. Who would be the defendant? Who is the potentially responsible party? The fire began in one or more of eight illegal trash dumps in the borough. Perhaps one or more homeowners or their predecessors dumped the wastes that triggered the fire.
Likewise, the Laurel Run mine fire apparently has no potentially responsible parties. The fire began 109 years ago. Mining in the area ceased in 1957. The companies that owned the underground mines no longer exist. The executives who ran the companies are in their 90s, if they haven't died already. Besides, the statute of limitations for civil damages ran out decades ago. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development relocated 850 residents who lived over the mine fire. Apparently no one has sued to stop the relocation. Federal and state officials blocked subsurface mining tunnels that robbed the fire of oxygen, thus saving the hamlet of Georgetown. However the fire within the confines of Laurel Run is expected to continue burning for a century.
Nearly all underground mining operations in the northern anthracite field have shut down for several factors, including the declining demand for anthracite coal.
@@frankbaran5698 - smh thanks for the insight.
Coal is not the same thing as charcoal.
nothin quite like those horse driven steam engines, eh?
Yeah, this video is all over the place. Now I'm starting to doubt there's a state called Pennsylvania.
Why don't they flood the mines ?
Watched to learn more to understand the coal seam fire that raged this last December through Superior & Marshall Colorado. Verified 100 mph winds whipped up the coals.
Titanic supposedly had a coal bin fire as well.
Here's an idea for a future video..Bayou Korn the massive 11million mega tones of explosive blast if the butane stored under ground in old salt domes its breaching slowly they say if it gets breached water will leak in melting the salt and releasing the butane if it finds ignition source 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 everything south and east will be flattened
Yeah... let's get rid of coal... that way you won't be able to plug in your electric cars! Works for me!!
it's like you're oblivious to the fact that other power sources exist....
PA probably will never be able to achieve 0 emissions……
couldn't you use this to power some engine and generate basicly "free" electricity?
I mean, of course you first have to manage how to build a power plant on unstable ground in a toxic/ deadly environment :-P
First anthracite coal was not used in making steel or iron it takes soft coal or coke. The fire in Centralia was cause by the old timers would who take their trash to out skirts of town and dump it were every so if you burn it on top of a coal shaft this what happens. A coal cracker's opinion
HI
HI
PA NUMBAH 1 BABY
I new you were going to bring up global warming. So predictable
Why can't they just pump river water into the mine til the fire goes out? Flood the mine completely. Why have they not tried this?
👌👌👌👍👍
I am like number 630
Why are these videos so US-centric? I subscribed to the channel for the world history videos, not the US history videos. Now it seems like most of your posts are about the US.
Save the global warming BS. The earth cycles. Get over it
8:23 co2 isn't pollution
Need a shout-out to good ol Global Warming. We need to microchip everyone and personalize their carbon footprint for reasons.
had to get political at the end.
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.
But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted".
YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FOR YOURSELF AN IMAGE in the form of anything, in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath, or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them, or worship them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents, up to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me, and keep my commandments.
If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray, AND TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS, I will hear from Heaven, will forgive their sins, and will heal their land.
AND WHEN YOU PRAY DO NOT BE LIKE THE HYPOCRITES, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners, to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
BUT WHEN YOU PRAY, GO INTO YOUR ROOM, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need, before you ask him.
This, then, is how you should pray:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others their sins,
your Father will not forgive your sins.
"Matthew 5-7 NIV Bible Gateway", we can use google search.
These are the teachings,
The Righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ our God.
REPENT, and start doing what is right.
If you abide my teachings, you are really my disciples;
then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Yet a time is coming and has now come
when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in Truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
GOD IS SPIRIT, so his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in Truth.
In the New Heaven and the New Earth,
only Righteousness dwells.
May the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ our God be with you all.
It is crazy that these mines are still allowed to burn emitting so much Co2
Not much choice about it. They don't have any way of putting it out.
@@russellhltn1396
Fires are not rocket science, if they passed a bill, even just a President's order and they would be out within a DECADE, this is just a matter of will.
Pressure boomer Biden as certainly the climate killing Reptillians aren't going to do anything.
Just FYI, you don't need a flame or spark to ignite coal. Coal is prone to spontaneous combustion as it oxides. So just need oxygen
Absolutely…I’d watch dozers push burnin coal all the time steam cleanin all over Ky and parts of West Virginia…
Xd
I worked in a coal mine that had a fire in it. They shut down the section and sealed it off and continued mining. It has been burning since I think the 40s. You can see steam escaping the rocks on the side hill above the portal It's crazy.
The movie called Silent Hill was loosely based on the underground coalmine fire in Centralia Pennsylvania.
good movie !
I thought the movie was based on the video game
You mentioned coal was less used by the great depression with cheaper fuel alternatives such as electricity? In most cases the electricity was generated by burning coal. Electricity is only "clean" if it comes from a clean source - electricity generated by coal is not clean.
There was a shot of a newspaper that mentioned "hydroelectric," which suggests electricity generated by a dam.
Yes, but there was a huge boom in hydroelectric projects as a result of the Great Depression. Most famously the Tennessee Valley and Hoover Dam.
So you mean to tell me that my Tesla is not actually "battery" powered and in fact "part hydroelectric, part natural gas, part low grade high sulfur fuel oil" powered? Jeez, I'd hate to think the African slave children that dug up the cobalt for the battery did that for nothing...