The state of Colorado plans to attempt to finally extinguish an underground coal mine fire that has been burning for decades and is a suspected cause of the 2022 Marshall fire that destroyed a thousand homes and killed two people near Boulder.
For the past few months, crews from Colorado’s Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety have been digging at the Lewis Mine state, removing some of the smoking dirt after discovering temperatures as high as 600 degrees just 30 feet deep.
CBS news reported it’s not the only burning coal mine in the state. In a 2018 DRMS study, there are 1,736 know abandoned coal mines in Colorado. A contractor hired by the state to examine them found 38 were actively burning or were dormant and extinguished after previously burning.
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