Pennsylvania's Forgotten Mine Fire; Red Ash Mine Fire, Laurel Run, Wilkes-Barre Township. Circa 1915

The Red Ash Mine fire in Wilkes-Barre Township, Pennsylvania began in 1915 from a miner's flame safety lamp or carbide lamp after it caught a mine timber on fire and then spread to the nearby Red Ash vein of anthracite coal. The mine crew attempted to put it out, but it smoldered for decades until abandonment in 1959/60. Once the mine was abandoned, the fire truly grew out of control. The whole village of Laurel Run was torn down in the 1960s in an attempt to stop/slow down the mine fire's spread. To this day in 2022, the mine fire is very active. I have been visiting this site on an annual basis roughly for 19 years (2003) and it is still burning in all the sections I noticed back then! I wonder if it will jump the firebreaks constructed in the 1960s/70s and spread to the adjacent coal mines? The ground can be unstable potentially and you do run the risk of falling into a void full of superheated and toxic gases and/or being burned to death in a literal hellfire. So please avoid the area. If you do go, watch your literal footsteps and be careful of the smoke emissions (carbon monoxide), they will overpower you potentially.

The remarkable thing for me is the fact that this mine was mined long before 1915, then it catches on fire, mining continues to the 1960 time period and 62 years later there is STILL enough fuel for the mountain to wildly burn. It is a mind-boggling amount of energy being lost. Perhaps the steam power/heat should be harnessed and piped into Wilkes-Barre? Feel free to discuss and be sure to smash that like & subscribe button! As always, thanks for viewing. Be sure to check in for my future uploads, as I have interesting material coming!

#anthracite #anthracitecoal #laurelrun #wilkesbarre #laurelruncoalminefire #wilkesbarrefire #wilkesbarrecoalfire #wilkesbarrepennsylvania #pennsylvania #abandonedtown #ghosttown #abandoned #creepy #redash #2022 #1915 #mines #mining #coalmine #coalmining #coalminers #coal #abandonedminefire #anthracitefire #abandonedcoalfire #lehighvalleyrailroad #georgetown #subsidence