Fire At Abandoned Fayette County Mine Extinguished

FAIRCHANCE, Pa. — (WPXI) – A fire in an abandoned mine in Fairchance, Fayette County has been extinguished, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said crews should be finished with their restoration work by the end of the week. Neighbors were worried the fire was going to continue to grow and burn out of control, eventually going under North Morgantown Road toward the old Kyle Mine. The DEP told Channel 11 they found out about the fire burning in an abandoned mine in Fairchance on January 6. But, they believe the fire had been burning since September and had gone unreported. On January 17, they awarded an emergency contract to put out the fire. The DEP said the effort to dig, put the fire out, back fill the abandoned mine, and then plant grass and cover the ground with straw cost just less than $27,000. That money comes from the state’s Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program, which gets some of its funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was passed during the Biden Administration.