Sunday, January 25, 2009

Lifting fire

This set of spectacular pictures comes from the BMA Blackwater mine in Queensland, Australia. In this, a section of coal has caught on fire (coal is quite susceptible to spontaneous combustion). Rather than have the fire spread to other coal, the dragline here is picking up the burning coal in its bucket and putting it on the spoil pile, where it will be smothered under rock and dirt.





2 comments:

Unknown said...

Impressive photos.

In the 4th picture, is it really acceptable practice to operate a dragline with half the shoe hanging out in space?

Anonymous said...

Not a problem.

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