Mine workers discovered a fire in the Big Vein of the Von Storch Mine in North Scranton on Oct. 25, 1937. Believed to have started when a rock fall broke electric trolley wires, which then ignited timber and a wooden flush pipe, the fire lay 250 feet below ground.
Those above ground feared for their homes, for North Scranton Junior High School and for several churches. Mayor Stanley Davis pledged cooperation in fighting the fire, and city mine cave engineer George H. Wilson declared no immediate danger to property.
"It would have created an extremely dangerous condition had the fire not been discovered when it was," he said, likening it to a mine fire in the Oxford Plot section of West Scranton a few years before.
From bad to worse
The largest vein at the mine, owned by the Penn Anthracite Colliers Co., the 14-foot Big Vein had been idle for several months. The fire lay behind the fall of rock. Mine Inspector L.M. Evans took charge of the efforts to combat it.
On Nov. 10, three city mine inspectors and firefighting experts from several companies entered the vein and reported that workers had reached the face of the fire. The situation was worse than they had expected. Earlier speculation estimated the fire had a spread of about 90 feet. The experts now said that there was no way to determine how long the fire had been burning, and its spread could be as much as 400 feet.
What was worse, the inspectors and coal company experts determined that it would be impossible to seal the fire area and confine the blaze.
"The Big Vein is the third vein down," they said, "but the other two veins have been worked out, and the fissures between the Big Vein and the next vein are making a draft, which is rapidly spreading the fire," the team reported.
"Our firefighting force has only reached the face of the fire," the expert team explained, "and the work is slow as the men must dig through debris, comprising burning coal and rock, and then load the stuff on cars to be hauled up the shaft. It may take months to conquer the fire."
Spreading threat
The fire also posed a threat to nearby mines. Because the fire could be fought from only one side, the process drove gas toward the Dickson mine of the Hudson Coal Co., the Cayuga mine of the Glen Alden Coal Co. and the Diamond mine of the Monarch Anthracite Mining Co.
Any flow of gas into these mines would mean their immediate closing. The Penn Anthracite Co., which operated the Von Storch mine where the fire began, was in a difficult financial situation. The burden of the cost of fighting the blaze fell to the Glen Alden Co. and the Hudson Co.
Stopping the spread
The following day, Nov. 11, the spread of the fire was believed to have been stopped. On Nov. 18, the team of experts believed they had extinguished the blaze on the slope side of the mine because the caved-in gangway on that side was no longer warm to the touch. They had begun pouring water into the fire area and continued to do so. By Nov. 23, they were sure the spread of the fire had been halted.
Meanwhile, the local W.P.A. office submitted an application for funds to help cover the cost of fighting the fire. Because the property involved was privately-owned, the application was rejected.
On Feb. 17, 1938, officials finally announced that the fire had been extinguished.
"In all my experience," said City Mine Inspector S.J. Phillips, "I never came across any better display of underground firefighting than in the Von Storch mine."
Because of that skill, he said, "a very serious threat to life and property in North Scranton was throttled."
CHERYL A. KASHUBA is a freelance writer specializing in local history. Visit her at scrantonhistory.com.
Contact the writer: localhistory@ timesshamrock.com