the endless coal fire of Centralia
May 4th, 2009 | Published in general
I see a story like this every so often, and the story of a fairly prosperous small town shut down by a seemingly endess coal fire fascinates me. I believe it when the gubment says that there may just be no way to put out an underground coal fire; there’s just so much heat stored up down there that quenching it must be unbelievably difficult.
But shouldn’t there be some way to harness the fire? Steam-powered electrical plant or something? Seems like we can’t beat it, so why not try to use it?