Culm Fire

Coal mines yield an impure product, and the raw coal must be processed to break up the pieces and remove the shale, dust and other undesirable parts. The waste material is called culm, and coal producers pile it in huge culm banks. A large fraction of culm is coal dust, making culm banks prone to fire.

Once started, a culm fire may burn for years, constantly releasing noxious gases and fumes. Culm fires may ignite the coal beds themselves. In that case the outlook is even worse. The notorious coalbed fire at Centralia, Pennsylvania, began in 1962 and is still burning, having completely destroyed the town above it. Youngstown is in for the same fate from the Percy mine fire, now in its fourth decade. Here's an article about modern techniques of detecting these fires and forecasting their effects.

This postcard was mailed from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1908. Clearly the occasional culm fire was considered just part of the price of coal's abundant energy and wealth—maybe not a tourist attraction, but certainly a noteworthy spectacle. To learn more about coal, see Coal in a Nutshell.

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