Fire burning for 180 years is finally put out.
Posted by Capri on October 4, 2007
Chinese firefighters have succeeded in putting out an underground coal fire that had burned unabated for 180 years.
More than $53 million had been spent over the past decade trying to extinguish the Rujigou coal field fire, which had consumed about 1 million tons of high-quality anthracite coal annually, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Sunday. The underground inferno was finally put out last month.
Officials had estimated the fire caused economic loss of $40 million and discharged 90,000 tons of hazardous substances into the air each year.
It’s not certain how the coal fire started but folklore has it that ill-treated miners set their mine on fire because of a beef with their boss.
It’s impossible to prove the legend. But there was a good chance that the fire started from the ground in the first place as miners used to camp on the mining field, lighting fires to cook or warm themselves.
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[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today!.Here’s a quick excerptChinese firefighters have succeeded in putting out an underground coal fire that had burned unabated for 180 years. More than $53 million had been spent over the past decade trying to extinguish the Rujigou coal field fire, … [...]