The fire began at the town dump and ignited an exposed coal vein. It could have been extinguished for thousands of dollars then, but a series of bureaucratic half-measures and a lack of funding allowed the fire to grow into a voracious monster 14 feeding on millions of tons of slow-burning anthracite coal in the abandoned network of mines beneath the town.
I think there is an underground coal mine fire here that was started by lightning. If I remember correctly there are signs telling you that the ground my be scorching hot, and it may collapse as there is no way to be sure where the coal has burned.
I heart coal.
Maude_Lynne