The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-12-29
ON FIRE FOR RIGaTEEN YEARS.
A Million Tons of Anthracite Burning
Under Ground.
From the Philadelphia Pre-

Under Ground.
From the Philadelphia Press
In 1878 fire broke out in the inside slope
Of No. colliery, near Lansford. in this
state. and it is raging still with all the fury
which the very best of fuel can give il. It
in bed Of coal 1000 feet long, so feet
thick and 45O feet deep, and though it is
covered with rock and clay to depth rang
ing from thirty to forty feet, the stones on
the surface are so heated that parlor
match laid on them will ignite in an in
slant. In one spot the men employed at the
diamond drills light their pipes with the
superheated pebbles. There is very little
external evidence of the fire, save the con-
stantly rising vepor and noxious gas that
ILLS the air and at times kills birds and
small animals that linger too long in the
neighborhood.
The early history of No. 6 was very un-
eventful until about 1878. It was opened
some thirty odd years ago by "Old JIM
Andrews, and was worked on the water
level for some years without serious acci-
dent, and without producing any consider
able quantity Of COAL The gangways were
turned east and west at a point $50 Yards
vertically below the surface. an da number
OF breasts were opened and continued 60 be
worked until the Lehigh Coal and Naviga
ton Company reclaimed the place. The
company originally obtained control Of the
largest tracts upon the rental of an ear of
corn per year, but, as may readily be i'm
agined, In lieu of paying the great increase
of rent demanded when the DEVELOPMENTS
had been made, the company acquired title
in fee.
The workings were all opened from the
foot of the slope, and the machinery for
pumping and hosting was not only in place,
but working along smoothly when the fire
broke out. 1t is alleged that handful of
oily cotton waste used about the machinery
and carried perhaps by the rats up the
slope and behind tie timbers, ignited spon-
taneously and caused a conhagration which
has since cost fortune in cash and coal Il
is estimated that yard Of coal in the vein
weighs ton. The dimensions of the area
in which the fire is now confined, and be-
You'd which it cannot extend hereafter, in-
dicates ], ITO, 600 cubic yards or tons of coal
involved. From this must be deducted the
small amount which "Old Jim" Andrews
and his successors mined and the portion
which may eventually be saved.
From ali these circumstances the state
ment will be the more readily credited that
in all the hundred Of mines fires in the an
thracite region the one at No. is unique.
There are others which have burned longer.
East Pine Knot. a few miles from Potts
vile. has burned more than thirty years
without one-quarter SO much destruction.
At Vaudeville in the same neighborhood
there is a mine which has burned forty
years, and at night is quite volcanic in APP
pearance, but which likewise did vastly less
damage and was not fought with the per-
sistency which marked the efforts at No. 6.
Nor did 1t exhibit the stubborn resist
ance and energy which this has shown.
There are numberless instances Of in
ternal fires which had much greater start
than this and were subdued in shorter time
but they were below the water level, and
were quenched by turning a stream of
water into the blazing subterranean re-
cesses. In the case of No. 6 the fire started
below the water level, but it spread 30
rapidly upward that, while the slope fire
was soon drowned out, there was no known
way of checking its progress above water
level, except by shutting out the air that is
needed to support combustion.
This was the first effort made Brattices
were built across the gangways, stopping
every hole and crevice through which air
could reach the fire. The mine was practi-
cally Theoretically sealed ALI pumping of
water and air was suspended, and men were
left to watch the result. In two weeks,
when reopened, it was found that the fire
burned with increased fury. The attempt
was made to draw the fire, and men were
engaged in mining the glowing Goals until
one after another they were overcome by
the heat and gas, and several lives we're en-
dangered.
At various times men were SO far gone
That their recovery was doubtful. General
Superintendent William d. Zehner was
carried out in an unconscious condition, and
Tor half day he lay in the brush with ex-
cited man working Ovar his inanimnfa hodv
Another man was packed in an envelope Of
moist clay, with no part of his skin exposed
out that which covered his nostrils, and
thus he lay for six hours before returning
life became apparent.
The third attempt was by drowning.
Dams and brattices were constructed across
tne tunnels. Two dams of brick, laid in the
BEST cement, were built across No. 6, and
one on the other side across No. Z, which
cuts all the veins and extends right through
the entire mountain. Water was poured
In, but year after year there were surface
indications that the fire was still raging.
Wherever these indications appeared it was
sign that there the fire was getting air,
and clay was piled upon the
SINGLE RUs BY msn Of employed td,d for t6 oS
these manifestations. At one time an effort
was made to destroy the atmospheric air by
the Introduction through drill hole of lime
and nitric acid gas, and at other times other
gases have been manufactured high up on
Locust Mountain side and forced in upon
the burning mass, but without having the
slightest apparent effect upon the energy Of
the flames.
Thus the unequal contest was waged I'M
ceasingly until 1890. when ell hope of ex
tnguisning the fire was abandoned, and it
was decided to cut the fire Off. or rather to
contlne 1t TO definite area, 1000 feet long,
T by deep cuts transversely to the vein.