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Comment by TomOfTTB | Hacker News Reader

Maybe it's just that I'm in the U.S. but I found the story of Centralia, Penn. pretty fascinating. To think they had a fire burning underneath them for almosts 20 years and were completely unaware.

There was a documentary made that was apparently just released on May 19th of this year (http://www.amazon.com/Town-That-Was-John-Lokitis/dp/B00208GJ...).

Check out this picture from their filming: http://www.thetownthatwas.com/assets/0000/0802/setting-up-in... And 11 people still choose to live there. Crazy.

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I'd bet that there are quite a few places like this in the US. Check out Times Beach, MO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_beach

That's certainly disturbing too but what baffles me about the Centralia thing is the fact that it was a fire and it was right underneath their feet. I mean, Coal burns at 2800 degrees Fahrenheit and that's what was burning underneath them FOR ALMOST 20 YEARS.

I mean think about that. Coal mines usually top out at about 500 feet below the surface. So let me put that in perspective. The Sears Tower has 110 stories and stands 1450 fit. So this would be like standing on the 36th floor while a 2800 degree fire burned on the first floor and not even knowing anything about it.

It's crazy.

I'm not trying to minimize what happened in Centralia. It does seem completely crazy.

Dirt can absorb a LOT of heat. If you had to put out a fire, and you didn't have any water, you'd throw some dirt on it, right? We are all standing on a big ball of fire, anyway.

Having worked next door to the Sears Tower for several years, I can tell you that's a lot of dirt, distributed over the entire area of the fires. The only thing that surprises me is that it took so long for the effects to be recognized.

By comparison the carcinogens in Times Beach were on the surface and therefore easily measurable.

>> Dirt can absorb a LOT of heat. If you had to put out a fire, and you didn't have any water, you'd throw some dirt on it, right? We are all standing on a big ball of fire, anyway. <<

The fire is extinguished by throwing dirt because of lack of oxygen, not because the dirt "absorbs" heat.

We're talking about different phenomena. < Oxygen = < Fire, but > dirt & minerals = < perception of underground fire.

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