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 Post subject: Olyphant Mine Fire
PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 7:40 am 
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Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:17 am
Posts: 89
Location: Olyphant, PA
So the Olyphant Fire is now officially completely out of control. The fire has completely jumped the trench and has already caused numerous brush fires in the woods on the other side... Friday there were 2 Olyphant (Area 26) Fire Trucks parked at the Olyphant exit of Route 6 (LVIH). I took a ride up yesterday and for the first time in months there has been bulldozer activity ( I was there last week and there was not ); moving some Culm around and pushing some trees in, but there was no machine to be found yesterday. It is almost impossible to approach the scene now since all paths leading to it become extremely hot about 300 feet shy of the fire, and you can visibly see the heat coming off the ground. Also the big "mountain" inside the trenched area that used to be the only place for the fire has fallen about 10 feet; you can tell this by looking at the pipes for the bore holes which now stick up about 10 feet from where they were. Also it has now left the DeLoma Mining Company land and has jumped into private land owned by a local Sportsman's Club.

I'm not sure what they plan to do about this; all I know is that the network of mines up there "can" put Olyphant Borough in jepordy in the near future. And it probably means there going to dig a Carbondale size trench around this problem... but i guess the word is they don't have the money for it?

Stay Tuned.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:47 am 
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Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:28 pm
Posts: 1758
Location: Winnemucca, NV
Wow, isn't this a place where the DEP should really be acting? Instead they are wasting their time tearing down historic breakers, backfilling adits and spending their time promoting "Stay Out Stay Alive" -- all while the mine fires rage and actually put people into danger.

I was wondering, how close is the Olyphant Mine pictured on UndergroundMiners.com to the mine fire? Is it spewing out smoke?


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 Post subject: osm
PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:11 pm 
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Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:17 am
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Location: Olyphant, PA
Actually Mike I think that this is covered under OSM's lists of problems and not the DEP since its emergent; and alas, there probably is no Federal Funding at the moment to fix it (which makes absolutely no sense since its only a matter of time before commercial property and homes are in danger).

The Olyphant mine depicted on UGM's website is (as the crow flies) 225 - 250 yards away from this fire; there is also a smaller Olyphant mine which I believe is also on the website about 175 - 200 yards away from the fire; smoke is coming from neither at the moment.

I can get GPS coord's to both if it would help you map out the area; better yet, I can probably retrieve a GIS map with a layer that highlights these areas from the Geospatial Dept. here at work; let me work on that.

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 Post subject: Mines near the fire
PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 10:22 am 
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Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 2:34 pm
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Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field
The two on the site are in different veins of coal and are above the fire, but if it jumps the it might reach it. kinda strange i didnt take you guys there when we went to the fire, they are real close. oh well. talked to the guy in charge of the fire project at osm and he said it is such a problem they really dont know what to do and are waiting on word from pittsburg, so yea mecca as you said its a real problem now. see ya


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:30 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:33 pm
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Location: Above the Sterling Hill Mine
GPS coordinates would be great if you have them. I was talking to Mike about this, but if this is near an out of control mine fire, I would imagine that it is at risk of either catching and or being closed because of it. Might be worth checking out SOON. Anything cool in these mines?


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 4:06 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 3:47 pm
Posts: 49
Location: Jessup, PA
Mecca, it was a refuse fire, now its a full blown mine fire. We went up there the other night in Boccardo's Touareg and where you would normally park, you now choke. I did notice the ground around it sunk too, might not be a good idea to go driving around there at night anymore.


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 Post subject: sinking ground
PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 9:22 pm 
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Location: Olyphant, PA
no you cant park where you normally would now because the ground is extremely warm to the touch and even somewhat "soft" feeling; though this may be part psychopsimatic?

the one mine *the one on UGM.com* goes in about 150 feet and stops dead. the second one goes in about 60 feet and Y's, to the left is about another 150' then a cave in.. same story on the right.

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 Post subject: olyphant mines by the fire
PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 10:22 pm 
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Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field
ill agree with mecca on the mines, they are really nothing special but the one has a real nice opening. the other is just kinda cut into the hill with no real pronouncing shape like the other one. but like he said the one with the nice looking opening ends after a short while, and the other one "Y"s once and both ways are collapsed, the left a little ways further than the right.

Im definatly checking it out tomorow, being with the plane or driving up. probably the plane cause we are jumping later but we'll see. Jen and i flew over it the other night to check it out at night from the air and see the "blue mound" and you can definatly see where it has burned around the trench. you know as you are approaching it coming up the path from rt 6, well there is a rock pile on the left. right around there, there is a big area of blue flames also. about a quarter the size of the main fire!! nice. those boys better get busy with the new trench, i really think its gonna be bigger than carbondale. the only difference is that was in 2 veins. but like the john at osm said they are waiting for word from the officials in pittsburg and funding. at least the good news is it burns uphill faster than down hill so it will be a little bit before things get too disasterous.......but........ at a rate of 3 ft a day in all directions its moving pretty fast. glad i live in lake winola. ha


chris


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 Post subject: monday
PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 10:28 pm 
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Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field
hey mecca and maybe greg and also banks, lets go up there monday after work and do a study of this thing and see where its gone to. need more pics and we will take the ones i take from the plane and compare them to the ground. also we can check out those mines you found between olyphant and archbald. quad isnt done yet so ill take the truck on the main path and you can take us to the ones close to there. ok see y a

chris


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 11:21 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 3:47 pm
Posts: 49
Location: Jessup, PA
That is burning 3 feet per day??? I had no idea it was burning that fast. At that rate, it's going to be underneath the road going up there very very soon, if not already. Give me a call when you wanna go up, I'm around every night but tomorrow, I'll be claybird shooting.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 11:35 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:33 pm
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Location: Above the Sterling Hill Mine
What about that mine that the crazy old hick told us about when we were up there? There was a back filled mine entrance not too far from where we parked near the mine fire? I assume all of that is gone by now? Did you guys ever dig that one out?


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 Post subject: hick mine
PostPosted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 7:26 am 
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Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:17 am
Posts: 89
Location: Olyphant, PA
That one actually isnt gone yet, that part of the "area" hasn't been touched since you guys were here actually. I found what is probably the mine he was refering to on the pole lines and i believe that Chris and Tony did as well. I didn't go in but it's alot further then the two we've been discussing.. maybe a quarter mile?

Chris; absolutely, study, pics, mission. Let me know.[/url]

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 Post subject: another one
PostPosted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:05 am 
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Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 2:34 pm
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Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field
actually mecca thats another one, the one greg is refering to is right by the fire. i forgot to tell you about that. the opening is filled in and we were gonna dig it out but since it is so close to the fire we deceided it was better to just leave it. you know when you are coming up the path to the fire from 6 and the fire is on your left, well where you turn left after the rock pile to go to the fire, the mine is just in the woods on the right. its only about 10 ft in the woods. but its definatly the mine that is burning and would be disasterous if we opened it and attempted to explore. dont need that.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 1:03 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:33 pm
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Location: Above the Sterling Hill Mine
I was under the impression that it was a different mine. If it is the same mine, then I'm sure it wouldn't be to healthy. Plus opening it would help improve air flow for the fire to continue to grow and much faster. Too bad this had to happen.

Greg


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 2:08 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 3:47 pm
Posts: 49
Location: Jessup, PA
I thought those 2 mines Chris Mecca and Tony Marino found were not connected to the mine fire. There is no smoke coming out of them or odor of hydro-sulfite.


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