Thanks very interesting

Those exposed seams are far more common than most realize. The coal industry in Alabama started from exposed seams along the Warrior River bluffs. The first "mines" were folks hacking out these seams then flat boating the coal down river to Tuscaloosa. Coal is still barged down river to this day.

My stretch of the river has two different creeks named coal bed creek on opposite banks.

And it's not just the coal that's flammable. I knew of one branch feeding one of those creeks that would burn if you held a match to where it flowed out of the ground, methane gas.

We have one In ND that is a National park. It is NW of Amidon ND. We have quite a bit of coal here.

Is this something that if they start to mine it they could put it out or is it too dangerous to mine?

Generally to dangerous. Mine fires can be extinguished but it requires being able to fully flood and/or starve of oxygen.

In the two I mentioned Jim Walter #3 had an excellent, and most importantly undamaged, ventilation system so they could wall it off to starve it and #5 sits directly under the Warrior river so the water supply was not an issue, they flooded it.

In the photos shown those are raw exposed seams not mines so no tunnels to pump in water or close off air. I also imagine no infrastructure to access the fire.

They tried several different ideas at Centralia like smothering it and pumping it full of water.

https://www.unilad.com/community/features/centralia-pennsylvania-coal-fire-250470-20230806

You are spot on. This particular seam in a 20 minute buggy ride that climbs about 500 feet from a shale road. After that it is a 400 yard hike another 200 feet up the hill. No feasible way to get ground equipment to it.