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Even with the imminent start of a $1.25 million, one-year project to extinguish an underground coal fire in Boyce Park, the vast majority of attractions and land there are safe, park and state environmental officials say.

However, the closing off of 17 out of 1,096 acres at Boyce Park will result in revenue losses over the next year, with the possibility of two park shelters having to be torn down.

"There are another four shelters and playgrounds that won't be directly affected by the project, but we still can't use them because the access roads had to be closed off," said Boyce Park maintenance supervisor Sonny Chiorazzo, referring to Meadow Lane, Summit Drive, Cherry Lane and Pierson Run Road.

An underground coal seam might have been burning for 30 years or more, said David Hess, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary, who toured the project site Tuesday.

"Down on the Pierson Run trail, we used to get a lot of complaints from hikers about smoke coming out of the ground," Chiorazzo said. "So we would go over and put gravel on it."

He also recalled an attempt to put the fire out by drilling underground and injecting soda ash. Firefighting foam also was injected at one point, DEP officials noted.

"After those projects in the 1960s and '70s, they thought they had put the fire out," Hess said. "But in 1989, the state was notified that it appeared to be burning again, and our on-site monitoring wells confirmed that."

Over the past year, DEP officials have been visiting Boyce Park and planning the project, which involves digging a containment trench around the 17-acre site, putting in a clay buffer, removing the remaining coal, extinguishing the fire and reclaiming the affected land.

Normal underground temperatures at abandoned mine sites are usually about 55 degrees Fahrenheit. DEP readings have shown the underground temperature at Boyce to range from 144 to 160 degrees, and they have been known to reach 400 to 800 degrees.

Underground temperatures at a mine fire that has burned for about 40 years in Centralia, Columbia County, have reached 1,100 degrees.

"The Boyce mine fire has never been a real hot one, and one reason may be that it's never been exposed to a lot of oxygen," said Steve Jones, chief of the DEP's Division of Mine Hazards. "Based on the drilling we've done, the Boyce mine fire appears to be pretty air-starved."

That's expected to change once the excavation begins, when a great deal of smoke and steam is expected to become visible.

This sort of phenomena has Chiorazzo more concerned than the potential loss of revenue from the project.

"One of the biggest things we get are curious people who want to see the fire," Chiorazzo said, hoping that potential onlookers will not put themselves in peril.

Joggers and walkers will have to alter their routes to avoid the project zone.

"And for the next year, there will be no motorist access to the back gate off of Pierson Run Road," Chiorazzo added.

DEP geologist Tim Altares noted that there have been other mine-related problems at Boyce with sinkholes opening up when mines collapse, such as one near the park's archery range.

Hess noted that if the fire is allowed to continue to smolder, the potential hazards will increase, not only for parkgoers but also for the general public.

"If we didn't catch this fire now, it would keep burning toward an area that has gas wells, and we all know that fire and gas don't mix," Hess said.

The fire also poses a threat to the park because of potential fumes, as well as the fact that cracks in the ground could open up once a coal ceiling has burned completely through.

"That's why we took the time to come up with a solution to fix this problem once and for all," Hess said.

In the meantime, Chiorazzo is pointing parkgoers in a different direction — the Boyce Park Wave Pool.

"We're still drawing thousands of people to the wave pool — it's probably our most popular attraction," he said.

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