Prevention and control of coalfield fire technology: A case study in the Antaibao Open Pit Mine goaf burning area, China

It is very difficult to clearly detect the location of a burning area in a coal mine since it is hidden underground. So we conducted research on the distribution of the burning area before controlling it. Firstly, the original drilling technique was used to analyze and determine the loose and scope of caving of burning area through field test, and then obtained the gases and the temperature data in this area were according to the borehole data. By analyzing these data, we found out that the location of burning area concentrated in the loose and caving area; and finally, the location and development of the burning area within the tested area were accurately determined. Based on this theory, we used the ground penetrating radar (GPR) to find out the loose and caving scale in the burning area during the control process of the burning area, and then located the fire-extinguishing boreholes within target which we used to control burning fire in the section. A mobile comprehensive fire prevention and extinguishing system based on the three-phase foam fire prevention and control technique was then adopted and conducted in the burning area which took only 9 months to extinguish the 227,000 m(2) of burning area of 9# coal. This control technology and experience will provide a very important reference to the control of other coalfield fire and hillock fire in the future. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of China University of Mining & Technology.