Reconnaissance of coal-mine fires in perry county, eastern Kentucky

Hundreds of underground and open pit coal-mine fires burning across the United States are destroying a valuable natural resource while spewing noxious vapors and particulate matter into the atmosphere from gas vents and ground fissures, frequently encrusted with the solid-byproducts of combustion. These fires have destroyed faunal and floral habitats, poisoned and killed people, destroyed towns, metamorphosed and melted rock adjacent to coal seams, and caused land subsidence. The fires usually ignite by explosives and electrical work, the accidental ignition of methane and hydrogen during mining, surface fires, lightening strikes, and spontaneous combustion. Numerous mine fires have been reported in the coalfields of Kentucky. During reconnaissance work in eastern Kentucky at the Ruth Mullins and Laura Campbell fires near Hazard, yellow- green smoke was observed to be billowing or continuously exhaled from ground fissures and gas vents. In both cases, the fire is in abandoned underground and auger mines in the Pennsylvanian Breathitt Formation Hazard No. 7 coalbed. Ignited by a forest fire in 2006, smoke from the Ruth Mullins fire, near the town of Bulan, north of Hazard, was observed along the highwall in 2007. This fire is a health hazard to families living nearby and could damage Kentucky Route 80 if coal was not removed during construction in 1980. West of Hazard, the Laura Campbell fire, thought to have started by the spontaneous combustion of coal, could destabilize a nearby water tank and affect the public water supply. Gas-vent temperatures, measured within select vents, ranged between 165 and 385°C. Several vents and fissures were encrusted with creosote, sulfur, and other solid-by-products of combustion, cuffently being analyzed along with the gas. In situ analyses of CO and CO ₂ at one vent were 100 ppm and 0.1% by volume, respectively.