A fire in an underground coal seam that has burned since the early 1950's and consumed 882,300 tons of coal last year in the Keerjian coalfield, in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has been extinguished.

Qi Dexiang, head of the Xinjiang Regional Coalfield Fire Fighting Project Office, said they will keep a close watch on the coal seam over the next two years and submit a final report on the fire fighting project in 2009 to regional and national authorities.

The fire covered 432,500 square meters and was fueled by coal that was 100 meters underground. The fire burned a total of 16.81 million tons of coal, causing heavy pollution to the area, Qi said.

Some coal fires have been burning for almost a thousand years in the region and are technically very difficult to put out.

"First, we drilled into the burning coal bed and then poured water and slurry into it to lower the temperature," he said.

"After the temperature drops we cover the surface to isolate the fire from oxygen in the atmosphere, to extinguish it."

Xinjiang, with estimated coal reserves of 1.82 trillion to 2.19 trillion tons or 40.5 percent of China's total, has so far put out 33 coalfield fires and plans to extinguish another 29 by 2015.

The Xinjiang Regional Coalfield Fire Fighting Project Office was established in 1958 to extinguish long-term coalfield fires plaguing the region.

(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2006)