Mine Fire Comes to Surface
After blazing for forty-five years in the coal grounds near New Straitsville, Ohio, a fire broke out at the surface and spread a pall of deadly gas over the hillsides. Miners from several coal companies in the section blasted around an exposed crater of nearly fifty square feet in an effort to shut off the flow of air and check the flames.
The fire started originally in the early '80s by men who fired a mine during the quarrels resulting from a strike. Ever since then the blaze has been smoldering, and the fire ate its way along coal veins and occasionally it came up to the surface. It has been held directly responsible for a number of mine cave-ins and for the razing of some buildings.
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