Coal refuse fire near Pottsville has residents concerned

The Associated Press

POTTSVILLE — A recently discovered underground coal refuse fire, apparently burning since July, has raised some concerns among neighbors and others.

Leo Lubinsky, who owns a 1,300-square-foot property in East Norwegian Township under which the coal refuse fire is burning, said that water about 60 feet below the surface and dirt banks surrounding the fire on all sides will keep it naturally contained.

He said drilling has shown an 80-foot-long, 70-foot-wide area of coal refuse burning underground in the shape of a tear drop.

“There’s no way it’s going to come toward the town,” Lubinsky said Friday.

Charles Dries, president of the local Palo Alto Borough Council, said the borough has virtually no idea what lies beneath the rest of the town.

Residents continue to deal with a mine water blowout that regularly floods parts of the borough with orange-colored sulfuric mine water.

“I would hope someone has maps,” he said. “We don’t have them. I would think it would help us to know what we’re sitting on.”

The fire is similar to one just outside Pottsville in October, which was extinguished within days. Crews determined that the current underground fire has been burning since at least July, though it was only recently discovered.