OCR Text |
Show BIG MINE FIRE UNDER CONTROL: I Millions of Dollars and Tons of Anthracite Lost in Struggle PHILADELPHIA Pa., Jan. 14. The Summit Hiil lire, the "Itinj;" of all mine fires, is still burning, but it La well under control, accordinpc to a re- cent, annnunremni by the Lr-high' eoal and Navigation company un whos proper!' ilame.s hav bepn eating eat-ing up millions of tons of abthraclte coal for thi last 2 years. While this one has been brought under control, I another mine fire, which haB beeui burning nineteen years near Mount ( ;irmfl, Pa, in the heart of th' lower anthracite Holds, 1b hMII trying to spread. A third fire, which has been i3ging for three years, in the RpcI A?h vpin of the Red Ash Coal company on the Wilkes Barre mountain, ha9 made it necessary to close the old 'Want's Tspair road known to many automobilists because of the hill (limbing contests that have been lu-ld upon It MILLIONS EXPENDED. Th Summit Hill fire In thp Panther Creek valley between Lansford and Coaldale. waa discoered in February. 1859, in an abandoned y:angv- The hard coal dips from 20 degrees to about 7 degrees and i" about 50 feet thick. The area involved is about one mile long by 1500 feet wide How many millions of tons of coal have' been consumed has never been accu rately ascertained, but it has cost the company more than $3,(100,000 to fight thc long burning fire In the early sixties an open cut was made In the Involved area which stained to isolate thp flames for many 'years, but eventually the fir traveled i past this cut into the coal areas be-' yond. Many efforts were made to 1 i chock the flames but to no avail until j about 1910 when a concrete and clay' j barrier, about 12 feet thick. 170 feet d op and 700 feet long, was built. Th ; fire traveled so rapidly that it pressed! closely upon the location of th new barrier before the work was com plot- j ed and the heat became so Intense that men could work only in 20 minute relays. Tho barrier epntually checked the progress of the fire STRIPPING COVER OFF. rn order to insure against a further' spread the coal company has beeni i mping the overburden from the coal1 7. est of the barrier. This operation has; been In progress nine years and wheuj completed the company officials hop-; the fire will be certain to be under 1 control. The eoht of the stripping op ' eratlon, involving the removal of 3.-500.000 3.-500.000 cubic yards of material, it is estimated. Will approximate $2,700,000.1 It is not known to tiie present generation genera-tion of mining men how the fire started start-ed Tho 19-year-old fire Is in the aban doned workings of the Sioux mine 01 the Lehigh Valley company near' Mount Carmel It oriKlnated when hot ashcB were dumped into a mine breach and ignited a vein of coal. Ev-l Ev-l ry effort to subdue Ihe flames has proved unsuccessful. 00 |