Colorado Springs - Unexplained ground heat burns boy’s feet

[gateley]

There was no fire, but the ground was hot enough in a Colorado Springs park to burn through an eight year old boy’s shoes and cause at least second degree burns on his feet. The boy went the hospital. His Crocs style shoes that were left behind have big holes with burned edges.

Firefighters want to know what’s causing the ground to get so hot near Golden Hills Park in the Rockrimmon neighborhood. Battalion Chief, Kent Matthews says, "In my twenty-four years I haven't witnessed this kind of occurrence. So it's unique.”

After the boy was treated and sent to the hospital firefighters took surface readings that showed hard to believe temperatures. According to Chief Matthews, "The highest temperature we got at the surface of the soil with the sun shining on it was 800 degrees, which is pretty darn significant. Radiant heat from the sun will get it up around 150, 160 degrees, but not to that level."

Firefighters have taped off the area and are monitoring it until they can figure out what's causing the ground to get so hot. Tests by hazmat team members show there are no dangerous gases. Crews have cut a fire-line around the area to prevent the heat from potentially starting a wildfire.

Early assessments show the problem area is coal dust. Neighbors say the area has appeared blackened as long as they can remember. What has to be determined is if it was dumped here years ago or if there's something happening underground. Crews from the state geological are on the way to figure out an explanation.



http://www.koaa.com/aaaa_top_stories/x1331638508

[Dover]

1. Magma near the surface? Anyway, an intersting story...n/t

[klyon]

17. yes maybe an eruption is about to happen

I would leave the area if possible
800 degrees???

[Xenotime]

34. Yup. Is * doing any drilling in the area?

[originalpckelly]

2. Holy crap that's here in colorado!

:scared:

Hope it's not some horrible volcano!

[annabanana]

3. Colorado Springs huh?. . Hellfire maybe?

(just a hunch)

[Warpy]

8. Yeah, I'll turn into a believer

if it opens up and swallows Dobson and his gang of lunatics.

I don't expect anything but a reasonable explanation, though. Real life is always so much duller than religion.

[Swamp Rat]

12. Hope Springs Eternal

[kcass1954]

18. You know, I log on here everyday hoping to learn something new,

and maybe be inspired.

Sometimes when I really need it, I come across something that makes me smile or laugh. Thanks Swampy, for all the cool images. This one is awesome! I'm still chuckling...

[Swamp Rat]

21. My pleasure kcass1954!

:hi:

[gateley]

28. THIS is my new fave, Swampy -- I love it! nt

[lonestarnot]

29. OMG

:spray: :rofl: Terrific

[malaise]

36. Fabulous

:rofl:

[Lint Head]

4. The Rocky Mountains and that entire area is active.

The Smokey mountains are older and once were volcanic. They use to be as big as the Rockies. The Rockies are younger and there is more geologic activity. :dem:

[newmajority]

5. Considering all the rightwing bullshit that goes on there

It's probably the gateway to Hell :evilgrin:

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

6. Aren't there some underground Coal Mine fires that have been burning for 100 years?

In Virginia maybe?

[Warpy]

9. Centralia Pennsylvania

They tried everything, just ended up venting it so people had time to get their houses moved without being poisoned by the fumes.

[KG]

20. New Straitsville, OH

119 years, started by striking miners.

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=521

[puerco-bellies]

7. Coal seam fire.

It could be a waist dump for coal dust or it was naturally deposited, coal can burn under the surface.

[Canuckistanian]

19. That was my first thought

Coal seam fires can last for years, smouldering just below the surface.

[LeftyMom]

10. I always figured Colorado Springs was as close to hell as most people get.

:shrug:

[distantearlywarning]

33. Having spent an eternity of 3 years there once upon a time

I have to basically agree with you...

[csziggy]

11. Is that a coal mining area?

In West Virginia there are (or were) places that had underground coal fires that had been burning for decades"

The coal then began to burn underground. That was in 1962. For the next two decades, workers battled the fire, flushing the mines with water and fly ash, excavated the burning material and dug trenches, backfilled, drilling again and again in an attempt to find the boundaries of the fire and plan to put the fire out or at least contain it. All efforts failed to do either as government officials delayed to take any real action to save the village. By the early 1980s the fire had affected approximately 200 acres and homes had to be abandoned as carbon monoxide levels reached life threatening levels. An engineering study concluded in 1983 that the fire could burn for another century or even more and "could conceivably spread over an area of approximately 3,700 acres."
http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/centralia.htm

Other places:
http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/20030215coalenviro4p4.asp
http://www.slate.com/id/2066936/
http://www.celsias.com/2007/12/05/fire-in-the-hole-coals-underground-secret/
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Coal_fires
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2003/2003-02-14-06.asp

[gateley]

16. Wow - that's scary. Thanks. nt

[rockymountaindem]

24. No

All our coal comes from Wyoming. I think there are a few scattered coal mines on the western slope, but none here on the front range.

[uncle ray]

37. however there WAS.

a large part of colorado springs is built over old coal mines. occasionally sinkholes develop because of it.

[Poll_Blind]

13. This is too far away to be related to the Yellowstone supervolcano, right?

  Colorado Springs is quite a ways away. I'm not too much into geology but it does occasionally impress me the things that go on under our feet in what we consider "static" earth.

PB

[gateley]

14. I'm listening to a replay of a radio show, and a caller said

the boy's parents said the ground was bubbling, but that wasn't included in the official statement. FWIW.

[leftofthedial]

15. underground coal mine fire

some of the coal reaches the surface

it's common around here and not "unexplained"

[alfredo]

22. There are Radium dumps all around the front range. There was at least

ten in metropolitan Denver. The city knew where they were, but at the time I lived there, they didn't disclose their location.

[TheMadMonk]

23. Any radium dump hot enough to burn would also be "hot" enough...

...to kill outright.

[alfredo]

32. true. I think the coal fire is a good explanation.

[Cerridwen]

25. Mystery solved - link

From this link

What they found has a relatively simple solution according to Kurt Schroeder with Colorado Springs Parks, "What the state representatives indicated to us is that the coal spoil that's been on top of the ground for years and years reacts with the sun, heat of the sun and it spontaneously combusts."

Because it's coal refuse likely dumped at this spot years ago, the recommendation from geologists is capping it. Crews will dump two feet of fill over the spot to keep the sun causing the coal remnants from igniting again.

[DCKit]

26. Damn! Not nearly as fun as Satan and Saddam coming back a la "South Park". n/t

[Cerridwen]

27. Yeah, I know. I felt like such a party pooper when I posted it.

It's so much more fun to make outrageous stabs at solving the mystery.



:D

[gateley]

30. Well it's much more preferable

than the radium dump. Glad they identified what it was. Thanks for finding that! :hi:

[lonestarnot]

31. Coal refuse? What does that look like?

[malaise]

35. Where is

Ken Lay???? :D