Burn, baby, burn ...
In New Castle, Colorado, a mine fire has been burning for over 120 years.
With a population of less than 5,000 people, New Castle is a coal town that was incorporated during the 1880s and came to be quite a prosperous town in that time. Today, New Castle is a growing rural community near Glenwood Springs and the White River National Forest with access to the Colorado River and plenty of outdoor recreation.
The Vulcan Mine produced high-quality coal and was one of the most profitable in the area, until multiple tragedies struck.
On February 18, 1896, part of the mine exploded and instantly killed all 49 miners inside. The local newspaper at the time described the event as shaking the entire town as if it were an earthquake. It took four weeks for the area to be safe enough to recover any of the bodies. And the fire from that explosion still burns today. The Vulcan Mine Fire is the longest-burning coal-seam fire in the country.
The Vulcan Mine reopened a few years after the disaster of 1896, only to have a repeat of the tragedy on December 12, 1913, when another explosion killed 37 men. Despite these two major losses of life, the Vulcan Mine reopened again under a new name and a third explosion at the mine in 1918 took three more lives. After that incident, the mine shut down permanently and is now on private property.
A memorial to those who lost their lives at the Vulcan Mine was put up in New Castle’s Burning Mountain Park in 2004. Steam and smoke can occasionally be seen rising from the ground as the fire inside Vulcan Mine continues to burn, a relic of the past.
Coal-seam fires, where the burning of an outcrop or underground coal steam occurs, are a common occurrence (some occur naturally), and there are currently close to 40 burning in Colorado. These fires are monitored by the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety. These fires can and have caused large wildfires; in 2002, for example, the Coal-Seam Fire near Glenwood Springs was sparked by an underground mine fire and then burnt 12,229 acres and 29 homes and buildings, costing at least $7 million to fight.
The best way to put out a coal-seam fire is to dig it out completely, which, in many cases—including the Vulcan Mine—is not possible. The fire in Vulcan Mine has no signs of fizzling out.
Did you know about this century-old fire that burns under Colorado? We love learning about all the amazing secrets our great state has to offer, don’t you? Sound off in the comments below.