North Goonyella Fire now Controlling Ventilation Flow and its own Oxygen and Fuel Supply.

With the main surface fan disabled the mine is subject to “Natural Ventilation Flow” but with the problem that the fire/heating underground is now driving the ventilation flow.

Unlike the situation with old coal mines having the fire at the base of the shaft the fire is in the middle of the mine, between two shafts and 2 drifts into the mine.

Imagine a charcoal fired pizza oven with 2 chimneys.

Its a pretty up-market pizza oven.

Variable speed exhaust fan, adjustable flue, multiple temperature sensors all done and monitored by remote control.

Seal the front of it with 2 pipes angled up to same height as the top of the chimney to supply fresh air and oxygen to the fire.

Next go and randomly drill 38 holes into the top of the pizza oven.

You are merrily cooking your pizza but its now got too hot; and no matter what you do adjusting the flue does nothing. It just keeps getting hotter and hotter and it will burn your pizza

Now if you block the intake pipes (mine drifts) where and how will heat and smoke come out and fresh air get in.

Even worse while you were not watching you heard some sort of explosion, the exhaust fan is wrecked, the flue is jammed open, the temperature sensors no longer work.

But there is smoke wafting from where it shouldn’t, the smoke is a funny colour and the smell of burning pizza is overpowering.

The buoyancy effect and laminar flow will keep the fire fed with Oxygen.

Prior to the smoke coming from the portals and the drifts being sealed, its very likely the cooler fresh air was intaking at the bottom portion of the drift and hot return smoke filled atmosphere was coming out of the upper section of the drift.

How do we put the fire out when we did not even know there were 38 holes for a month?