Morwell coal mine fire presents health risk

[bob10]

25,000 face masks issued, an uncomfortable time. Bob


Premier says no need to relocate Morwell residents as authorities warn of another day of fire danger - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-24/premier-says-no-need-to-relocate-morwell-residents-as-authoriti/5280998)

[Vern]

Its Smokey outside our place again today, and we are some 20odd km away:(

[Homestar]

Can't see it being a bad thing to relocate Morwell....:D

On a serious note, it wouldn't be pleasant there at the moment. It is my old home town and having worked at all the mines in the area, I know the smell of burning coal, it isn't nice. This is the worst fire they have seen.

There will be many more weeks of it to come yet as well, maybe months.

Hope they can get on top of it soon.:(

[rovercare]

If they are lucky enough it will go underground and morwell may well drop into a pit of ash:D

But in reality I doubt brown mud with 65% moisture content will burn without the help of lots of oxygen

I guess I'll find out what its like in a week and a half

[andy_d110]

Have just bought a late '09 D3 in Morwell, might have to hurry up the transport over to WA before the place burns down!

[cewilson]

The Tassie fire service is doing some great work at that fire. Hopefully it keeps going well!!!

[Ausfree]

How did the fire start?????

[Landover]

How did the fire start?????


I think it was lit by a fire bug. Hope they send them the bill.

[POD]

There is speculation that the fire may go underground, burn it's way under the town and then collapse, so that Morwell will be just one big hole. It may take a while for anyone to notice the difference....

[austastar]

Hi,
this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania)one in the USA has been going for a while.

cheers

[Bushie]

How did the fire start?????

It started when a grass fire ran into the mine site on a severe fire day (Feb 9th).
There have been reports the original grass fire may have been deliberately lit.

Fighting Hazelwood's dastardly coal fire | Business Spectator (http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/2/28/energy-markets/fighting-hazelwoods-dastardly-coal-fire)

Lots of resources tied up with fighting the fire.

Martyn

[Vern]

Someone was spotted driving down the strzelecki hwy throwing lit toilet paper out the window, this was reported straight away to police, but I've not heard the outcome of it.

[PhilipA]

That's not an old coal fire THIS is an old coal fire.
Burning Mountain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Regards Philip A

[POD]

There's been a fire burning in a coal seam in the Strzelecki range, south of Childers, for decades. Very occasionally a farmer will find a smouldering hole in a paddock where it has collapsed in. Thought to have been from a small underground coal mine abandoned sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Not too far from the Latrobe Valley at all.

[rovercare]

There's been a fire burning in a coal seam in the Strzelecki range, south of Childers, for decades. Very occasionally a farmer will find a smouldering hole in a paddock where it has collapsed in. Thought to have been from a small underground coal mine abandoned sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Not too far from the Latrobe Valley at all.

Must be in a black coal seam not brown, few of them down south

[Chucaro]

The state government support

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t1/1016432_263206117181964_364330824_n.jpg

[PTC]

If this fire lasts a long time. Will all the CFA volunteers be paid for there work on the fire. Or will the power station donate to the CFA for their time. It seems a bit unfair if its an ongoing fire to expect people to donate there time forever to fight it.

As i don't see this ending any time soon. And a mate of mine who went up there to fight it on his few days off work. Said it wasn't looking too good.

[Geoff]

Just back from a 4 day stint (12 hrs on, 12 hrs off) with the CFA as a volunteer. the effort being put in by members of the CFA, MFB, South Australia, ACT, Tasmanian, New south wales, and even the trucks from the airport is unbelievable.


the fire is contained to the mine with every effort being done to keep it this way, still gets a bit hairy when the wind picks up though.


anyway, thanks to anyone who has worked on this and the other fires in the state.

[Hymie]

Must be in a black coal seam not brown, few of them down south

Yep, from Coalville across to Wonthaggi.

[Hymie]

There were still helicopters buzzing around in there this afternoon.

[Gerokent]

There is speculation that the fire may go underground, burn it's way under the town and then collapse, so that Morwell will be just one big hole. It may take a while for anyone to notice the difference....


It's been said that Kalgoorlie is the biggest hole in the country,
and the super pit is right next to it :wasntme:

[86mud]

I have spent a bit of time at Hazelwood Power Station lately. The Powerstation is right next door to the mine where the fire is burning. I have heard that the fire will be out by the end of the Month. I didn't think the smoke was too bad. Was a little hazzy.

Pictures are just iphone quality taken at dusk.

[Homestar]

What brings you down here Andrew? That's my old stomping ground - worked at Hazelwood a looooong time ago....

[86mud]

The company I work for (UGL) is contracted to do maintenance. I have been down there engaging a few subcontractors for the upcoming shutdown on Boiler 2. We did Boiler 6 back at the end of last year. Will do Unit 7 later this year.

I stayed in Traralgon and didn't seem to get time to do much else but work!

[Homestar]

Cool. When I worked there we were doing a plant life extension on unit 2. I was in the genset gang, so I've crawled around the unit 2 gen when I was a 1st year apprentice, back in 1987 I think. :)

Next time you are there and think you may get some time to yourself, sing out and I'll organise some work down that way for myself and drop in and say hi. :)

[Geoff]

here are a few pics I took with my phone

[Blknight.aus]

ok so hear me out on this....

a fire needs three things to work, heat fuel and oxygen (lets ignore the ignition source for now, the fires started)

we can cool it to remove heat...
we can take the fuel away....

now neither of those options are working too well right now...

so we are left with smothering it... smothering it removes the oxygen from the fire which would normally be done with foam, fire blankets or sand.

ok so thats not practical either so why dont we just relocate parliment house next to the fire and have them sit an extended session, surely theres no way a fire could continue to burn with that bunch of oxygen theives doing their thing.