A fire in an underground coal seam that has burned since the
early 1950's and consumed 882,300 tons of coal last year in the
Keerjian coalfield, in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has been
extinguished.
Qi Dexiang, head of the Xinjiang Regional Coalfield Fire
Fighting Project Office, said they will keep a close watch on the
coal seam over the next two years and submit a final report on the
fire fighting project in 2009 to regional and national
authorities.
The fire covered 432,500 square meters and was fueled by coal
that was 100 meters underground. The fire burned a total of 16.81
million tons of coal, causing heavy pollution to the area, Qi
said.
Some coal fires have been burning for almost a thousand years in
the region and are technically very difficult to put out.
"First, we drilled into the burning coal bed and then poured
water and slurry into it to lower the temperature," he said.
"After the temperature drops we cover the surface to isolate the
fire from oxygen in the atmosphere, to extinguish it."
Xinjiang, with estimated coal reserves of 1.82 trillion to 2.19
trillion tons or 40.5 percent of China's total, has so far put out
33 coalfield fires and plans to extinguish another 29 by 2015.
The Xinjiang Regional Coalfield Fire Fighting Project Office was
established in 1958 to extinguish long-term coalfield fires
plaguing the region.
(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2006)