Meuselwitz underground coal fire smoulders after a month as extinguishing efforts prove difficult
A lignite fire burning below ground at a former East German mining site for a month has defied aerial water drops and sprinklers, with authorities now planning to flood the area from a nearby lake.
Fire origin and immediate response
The fire broke out during the last weekend of June at the disused Rusendorf opencast mining area near Meuselwitz, Thuringia, close to the borders with Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony. A sagging high-voltage cable is believed to have ignited a tree, starting an above-ground blaze that was extinguished within days. By then, however, the flames had already migrated underground into coal residues. The site was handed over to the Lausitzer und Mitteldeutsche Bergbau-Verwaltungsgesellschaft (LMBV), which owns the land and is responsible for rehabilitating former East German lignite operations, including the restoration of land and water bodies.
The basin had been used until 2013 by the mining company Mibrag for ash disposal, leaving lignite remnants in the soil. Tobias Rudolph, professor of geo and environmental monitoring at the Technische Hochschule Georg Agricola in Bochum, described the fire as a textbook example of climate change. Prolonged dry spells had dried out the soil deep below the surface, and the groundwater level in the mining area had been lowered. A single spark was enough to ignite the dust and trigger the fire.
- Fire breaks out at the former Rusendorf opencast mining area during the last weekend of June.
- Above-ground flames are extinguished, site is handed over to LMBV as the fire continues to smoulder underground.
- Helicopter water drops are tested on two days but fail to reach deeper fire layers. A sprinkler system and firebreak are put in place.
- LMBV announces a plan to pump water from a mining residual lake 4 km away; no date for the start of flooding is given.
Why the underground fire is so difficult to extinguish
The fire is smouldering in a former coal settling basin where, according to Martin Kreßner, professor of opencast mining and recultivation at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, coal dust from a former power plant was flushed into settling ponds and caught fire, penetrating deep soil layers.
Dort gab es ein ehemaliges Kraftwerk, wovon der Kohlestaub in die Absetzbecken gespült wurde.
The thin covering layer prevents extinguishing water from reaching the seat of the fire directly.
Das Problem ist, dass die relativ geringe Deckschicht den unmittelbaren Zutritt des Löschwassers verhindert.
The LMBV notes that the burning area cannot be walked on and that the fire keeps shifting, flaring up in different spots. Only cooling the hot spots or cutting off the air supply could extinguish it, but access is severely limited.
Efforts to douse the flames
A firefighting helicopter dropped water on a defined area over two test days, but the LMBV said the attempt did not achieve the desired effect because the water merely stirred up the surface without reaching the deeper layers. A sprinkler system was subsequently installed to attack the fire sources, and a firebreak was cut around the affected area to prevent spread.
The current plan is to wet the entire area using water from a mining residual lake four kilometres away. Two pipelines are to be laid for this purpose, but the timetable for starting the flooding remains unclear.
Climate and legacy mining context
Rudolph stressed that prolonged drought and the lowered groundwater table, a consequence of the mining history, created ideal conditions for the underground ignition. The LMBV, which specialises in the reclamation of former GDR lignite opencast mines, is leading the extinguishing effort. Officials have stated that no comparable coal fire has occurred in the region in recent memory.
