In the village of Terca, in Lopătari commune, flames come straight out of the ground. This is natural gas rising from deep underground and burning in the open air: in Romanian, “focurile vii”, the living fires.
Back in 1898, A. de Richard described “the phenomenon of the perpetual fires” in Lopătari, and in 1901 Alexandru Vlahuță saw on the hillside “those tongues of flame, transparent, trembling in the sunlight”.
“those tongues of flame, transparent, trembling in the sunlight”
Alexandru Vlahuță, România pitorească, 1901 (translated from Romanian)
