When left unattended, large piles of coal can spontaneously combust, which is what happened on Campbell River’s oceanside loading dock on Sept. 24, 2019.

The coal pile and the mine from which it came had just been abandoned by its owner, Thomas Clarke. A nursing-home owner turned coal magnate, Clarke had developed a reputation for just this kind of disappearing act, having left a trail of bankrupt mines across the United States. Now, as firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze, the Quinsam Coal mine was about to join them.

“Executives are trying to squeeze the last dollars they can out of a dying industry and then not be the ones left holding the mine when it has not been reclaimed,” she told The Tyee.