Dick Griffiths and Herb Allen were pictured inspecting a coal-seam fire in Merritt when it surfaced in 1981.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Merritt Herald
November 06, 2022 - 7:06 AM
Nobody seems sure about how an underground fire in Merritt first started many decades ago.
It was reported to have happened in a coal seam where mining operations used to be active. But exactly when and how it started remain a matter of speculation.
“I, too, have heard these rumours,” former Merritt mayor Linda Brown said in an email.
“However, I'm not altogether clear on what is fact and what is fiction.”
But evidence of the fire, despite how it was burning underground, could be seen in plain sight.
In the wintertime, residents like Sandy Curnow could see patches of green grass because the heat kept the snow off all year.
“All through my childhood there was steam and smoke,” said Curnow, who moved to Merritt in 1965.
She said it’s been about a decade since smoke and steam have been apparent.
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Two coal-seam fires were reported to be active on July 26, 1989 – according to that day’s edition of the Merritt Herald. Old copies of the paper can be searched through the Thompson Nicola Regional District’s online library.
The article Coal fires still burning in Merritt hills says one of the coal-seam fires was believed to have started while mining operations were active, which was some time between the 1920s and 1940s.
Local historian Pat Lean told the Herald in 1989 that fire had probably been burning since the 1920s.
“At one time it was said the fire was the result of faulty mining practices at the Middlesboro collieries, but then somebody told me later it wasn’t faulty mining but that the fire actually started outside the mine and had gone in and ignited the coal,” Lean said.
Merritt Herald, April 22, 1981.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/arch.tnrl.ca
Further along in that 33-year-old article, long-time Merritt resident Allan Collett told the Herald about the origins of the other fire.
“The other one started a few years back on a Halloween night when someone set fire to one of the last of the buildings on the site,” Collett said. “I guess the fire followed the coal right into the mine.”
The article warned readers of the dangers of coal-seam fires.
“The holes in the ground on the hills are big enough to swallow up small children who might dare to wander in the area, but there have never been any casualties reported.”
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Going further back, on April 22, 1981, the Herald reported that a coal-seam fire opened up a hole on the surface after burning underground for years.
The hole was about one foot in diameter.
The article suggested it was possible to put the fire out, but probably not worth the effort. “The only way to put the fire out would be to dig it up. This would be both costly and annoying to the local residents because the work would resemble a big coal mining operation.”
Mine inspector Jim MacCulloch told the Herald at the time that nothing could be done to put the fire out.
“It’s going to keep burning until doomsday,” he said.
More recently however, Glen Plummer, communications manager for the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, said there are no known coal-seam fires currently active in the area, adding that an inspection took place earlier this week.
"The Chief Inspector of Mines, along with Merritt’s fire chief, visited the area on Oct. 31 and confirmed there is no fire, no smoke and no burning smell coming from the long-closed coal mine operations," Plummer said in an email.
Merritt Herald, April 22, 1981.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/arch.tnrl.ca
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