I had been here before, looking for this fire; had never been able to find it.  However, aided this time by my (my Dad found astonishing) memory of the town--and a REALLY nice older woman in a convenience store ( :) )--we were able to find it.  :) :)

      As there are three (!!) mine fires in Carbondale (!!!!), I wanted to be clear on which one I was showing/talking about.  I was able to find the following on the 'Web:

In 1942, the seam of coal that emerged from the ground in a nearby strip mine was ignited by spontaneous combustion caused people throwing trash. The fire has been burning ever since. The fire is moving through the mine workings and is about 400 acres in size, growing every day. Thousands have moved out of the city because of the fire and hundreds of houses were leveled. Two people were killed from carbon monoxide exposure in 1952. This was the first of three mine fires that would plague Carbondale for years to come.

One such fire is located near Russel Park, where the Powderly Colliery once stood. In 1995, people burning trash in an open strip mining pit caught a coal seem on fire. This is an all too familiar problem for Carbondale. An attempt to extinguish the fire was made by digging 150 foot trench down into the mine. This attempt was unsuccessful and if not contained, the fire can burn all the way to Scranton. The gases can be seen rising from pipes put down into the mine and cracks in the ground caused by the intense heat. Some of these pipes have been uncapped and the gases can be seen rising from them.

Though Centralia has been made famous because of its mine fires, Carbondale's fire are at least twice as big and have been deadly. More people have moved out of Carbondale, the only difference is that the whole town of Centralia is gone. Most of the people in Carbondale are seemingly unaware of the fire raging beneath them.

Note: The Powderly Mine fire is not to be confused with the Powderly Culm Bank fire, located a half mile away. The difference is that this fire actually stems from the mine, unlike the culm bank fire that burned out in 1996.

-from undergroundminers.com

      (Those guys TOTALLY *ROCK*!!  :) :) :) :) )

      All the pictures shown on this page are from the fire near Russel Park.

      As I said above, I had already been looking for this fire! Fire!! FIRE!!!! (Um, heh-heh.  -Sorry about that.  :) ) before---so, I wasn't entirely sure that I would be able to find it.  (In fact, for some reason, I wasn't feelin' too optomistic.  (. . .) :P :( ) And conditions were . . . less than ideal.  A whole buncha' gaps between artifically placed rocks were hidden by snow---just waiting for an ankle or leg.  :P :P -And, truth be told, my "aerobic abilities" just . . . aren't what they used to be.  :P :P -And climbin' up to this fire (even first finding a way up (!)) was . . . no small feat (at least for me).  So, just imagine my sense of joy/relief when I first beheld a vent---facing east:

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      :) :)

      Facing slightly north of east---a smallish vent, which doesn't seem to show in the photo:

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      Closer in, facing east:

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      I found it a little bit disturbing---that the only way "in" (at least, for my tired frame :p ) was over an obvious "hot spot," venting away. . . .  -A few back over the way I had just come, facing roughly southwest:

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      A vent. -I honest don't remember just where this was.  :)

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      A view back over the "main field"---facing just north of east.  (The vents don't show all that clearly.  (. . .)) A bit Carbondale can just be seen in this pic:

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      Facing west, back the way I had come in---Carbondale can be readily seen: (I wanted to capture how close people were living to this thing.  (!)

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      A vent, facing northwest:

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      Chasing minefires in not always that . . . safe a way to occupy one's time---as evidenced by this 100 foot drop-off.  (!!)

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      Facing back west towards Carbondale---again, I wanted to capture how close these things can be to people's homes: (!!)

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      A vent---please notice how the heat of the underground blaze has melted away the snow. . . .  (In fact, in Centralia, it can be raining---with some area of the ground still dry.  (!!))

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      A final view, facting west toward Carbondale:

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      -Poor folks in Carbondale---what with THREE of things going on. :( :( (!!)