Mine fires that burn for 400 years

By / / business, history, science / business, danger, environment, fire, germany, history

Centralia - Where there's smoke..
Creative Commons License photo credit: C. Young Photography

From Joshua Foer’s “Giant Burning Holes of the World” (Boing Boing: 16 June 2009):

… these sorts of mine fires can stay lit for a very long time. One burned in the city of Zwickau, Germany from 1476 to 1860. Another coal fire in Germany, at a place called Brennender Berg (Burning Mountain), has been smoking continually since 1688!