1898 - Coalmininghistorypa.org

No. 11. FOURTH ANTHRACITE DISTRICT. 105Fires have oeeuired from stoves and open lamps in tire boss stationswhich were built of combustible material. The stoves are nowin most places superseded by steam heat conducted from surface, andthe stations are constructed of stone walls with the natural rock floor,and working benches constructed of sheet iron. No combustiblematerial of any kind should be used in the construction of a fireboss station, owing to the large quantities of oilused.Fires have occurred in oil rooms underground. Oils should not bestored in the mines, but if absolutely necessary, it should be keptin fire proof rooms and no open lights should be permitted nearthem.Pump rooms, engine rooms and tool shanties constructed of boardsor having plank floors, have been the places where mine fires have frequentlyoriginated. All such should be constructed of rock, brickor bone, and no inflammable floors, benches or cupboards should beconstructed therein.Fires have originated in such rooms from the spontaneous combustionof oily waste stored in wooden kegs; from old clothes saturatedwith oil, by sparks flying from an open mine lamp into a heap ofcotton waste; and from the careless use of mine lamps by engineersand pumi)men in the vicinity of inflammable material. Fires haveoiiginated in piles of wood near plane drums where the worn particlesof wood falling from the brake blocks have ignited by a spark fromthe friction of the brake.One fireoriginated where a car load of fresh lime was unloadedon a platform made of a dry, half rotted old door. The lime, onbeing slacked, generated heat enough to set the old door on fire,and this in turn set timber near by on fire, and had it not been discoveredin a short time, a serious mine fire would have been the result.Canvas doors, old dry brattice boards, and timber and lagginghave been ignited by the careless use of the lamps of persons passing.Fires in such cases have been started by the ignition of gas feeders;by explosions of accumulations of gas, and by the spark from electriccurrents used to run motors and electric pumps.The chances of fires in all such places are reduced by having allloose boards, rotten timber, and chips of wood cleaned out. Electriclights, trolly wires and wires conducting electric currents to runelectric machines should not be placed in passages thickly timberednor where there are gas feeders, or where there are chances for accumulationof bodies of explosive gases. Neither should they beplaced in the return airways of gaseous mines. There are gravedoubts as to the safety of electric currents in any i)art of a dry orgaseous mine. It is somewhat like a red hot poker in a powder