https://www.koaa.com/aaaa_top_stories/x1331638508




Unexplained ground heat burns boy’s feet

Story By: Bill Folsom
Source: KOAA
Colorado Springs Published 86 day(s) ago

There was no fire, but the ground was hot enough in a Colorado Springs park to burn through an eight year old boy’s shoes and cause at least second degree burns on his feet. The boy went the hospital. His Crocs style shoes that were left behind have big holes with burned edges.

Firefighters want to know what’s causing the ground to get so hot near Golden Hills Park in the Rockrimmon neighborhood. Battalion Chief, Kent Matthews says, "In my twenty-four years I haven't witnessed this kind of occurrence. So it's unique.”

After the boy was treated and sent to the hospital firefighters took surface readings that showed hard to believe temperatures. According to Chief Matthews, "The highest temperature we got at the surface of the soil with the sun shining on it was 800 degrees, which is pretty darn significant. Radiant heat from the sun will get it up around 150, 160 degrees, but not to that level."

Firefighters have taped off the area and are monitoring it until they can figure out what's causing the ground to get so hot. Tests by hazmat team members show there are no dangerous gases. Crews have cut a fire-line around the area to prevent the heat from potentially starting a wildfire.

Early assessments show the problem area is coal dust. Neighbors say the area has appeared blackened as long as they can remember. What has to be determined is if it was dumped here years ago or if there's something happening underground. Crews from the state geological are on the way to figure out an explanation.

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Mystery Solved?

Story By: Bill Folsom
Source: KOAA
Colorado Springs Published 85 day(s) ago

The mystery of what caused the ground at a Colorado Springs open space park to reach eight hundred degrees appears to have been solved. So hot, it burned through an eight year old boy’s shoes and sent him to the hospital with burns on his feet.

It happened when the boy went into the Rockrimmon open space near Golden Hills Park. He wandered into an area locals say has appeared blackened for years. Only this day the ground was astonishingly hot. Battalion Chief Kent Matthews with Colorado Springs Fire reports his crew getting surface temperature readings of eight hundred degrees.

Not knowing whether this was a surface issue, or something coming up from one of the many hidden old mines in the area, experts with the Colorado State Geological Survey were asked to help look into the problem.

What they found has a relatively simple solution according to Kurt Schroeder with Colorado Springs Parks, "What the state representatives indicated to us is that the coal spoil that's been on top of the ground for years and years reacts with the sun, heat of the sun and it spontaneously combusts.”

Because it's coal refuse likely dumped at this spot years ago, the recommendation from geologists is capping it. Crews will dump two feet of fill over the spot to keep the sun causing the coal remnants from igniting again.

https://www.koaa.com/aaaa_top_stories/x1478701194/Cause-of-super-heated-ground-found