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(Salt Lake City-AP) -- Tons of coal caught on fire at the University of Utah Monday afternoon.
The university's heating plant usually runs on natural gas, but they keep about 300 tons of coal on hand for backup.
Around 4 p.m., some of that backup coal caught on fire. No one was injured and there was no damage to any of the buildings.
The fire department says that coal can burn for a long time, so they took 150 tons of the smoldering coal out and soaked it in water.
The coal apparently spontaneously combusted, and it took more than 60 firefighters to deal with the blaze.
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
