AN ETERNAL FLAME?

    THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10th, 2020

             AN ETERNAL FLAME?

   Some folks might be surprised to find a

Ghost town just a few miles away from Public

Square in Wilkes-Barre, But we're got one!

    58 years ago this month the final move of

some 850 people under way  in the

Borough of Laurel Run,  The now vacant land

on either side of what has become know as

the Giant's Despair road was once filled with

over 160 homes, 2 grocery stores, a church, a

school and a lumber yard

      Back in 1915 a coal miner left his carbide

light burning while hanging on a wooden

pillar. By the time the mine reopened after

the weekend the fire had spread into a seam

of coal,

       Over the years the blaze spread further,

eventually causing some of the ground above

to collapse and sending toxic fumes to the

surface.

        There are still homes in Laurel Run. All safely

west of the fire area. Efforts have been made to

stop its spread but it still burns 105 years after

it started  Coal may have been king at one time,

but it was also a killer!