Burning Coal Seam in West Virginia

April 24th, 2008  |  Published in Coal Industry News  |  7 Comments

Burning Coal Seam in West Virginia
There are many known burning coal mine reported to exist. For some we know how the underground coal seam fire was started, for others we simply have no idea. A seam has been burning in mining town of Centralia, Pensylvania, since 1961 (see full review). Mount Wingen in Australia has been burning for years and earliest European Visitors reported the burning coal seam in 1820-1830s (source). Some think that the magma intrusion is the source of burning in the coal seam at Mount Wingen. While traveling in West Virginia I found another location where you can see fire coming up from underground burning coal seam. This area is near Charlston, West Virginia. This area is just few miles away from Pine Ridge Coal Company preparation plant. I asked some of the coal miners about when the fire started. They said it was there even 30 years back when they first started working! I just thought this is really amazing. Here I am sharing some pictures with you all again Enjoy.

burning_coal

burning_coal

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7 Comments

  1. Jerry says:

    There is another mine in west virginia that is burning, it is south of delbarten, wv along the hatfield and mccoy atv trails, you can see the smoke coming out of the hills just like your photos, my pics are very similar to yours

  2. COuld you provide some moire info on exactly where this is? Also, if you know of any other coal seam fires in WV, I’d appreciate it.

    I am trying to catalog known coal fires on Google Earth.

  3. arindam ghosh says:

    can u tell me about recient coal mine fire in ecl mining at raniganj india

  4. brittany says:

    i have been there it is absolutely amazing. i rode the atv trails

  5. Ankan Basu says:

    Ya. I was told that even the 70 year old miners working in the Pine Ridge mine saw the coal seam burning before they started working in the coal mines. Never ending coal fire.

  6. Cav says:

    Apparently there are over 580 known seams burning in wv to date.

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