the method of the present invention to remove gases entrained in the coal for example fire damp when the production of coal from coal bed 18 is planned for conventional underground mining techniques referring to fig1 only two coal beds are illustrated referring to fig2 where a larger number of coal beds are illustrated some of them may be quite far apart for example 200 feet from the nearest adjacent bed those skilled in the art will readily envision that coal bed 24 overlain and underlain by sedimentary rocks 28 may be produced by in situ gasification with coal bed 26 produced by the methods of the present invention when coal bed 26 is produced to its economic limit the perforations opposite coal bed 26 are sealed off using techniques common in the petroleum industry then perforations are added opposite coal bed 25 and the methods of the present invention are used to produce coal bed 25 to its economic limit the perforations opposite coal bed 25 are sealed off and perforations are added opposite coal bed 23 then coal bed 22 and so on since coal bed 21 overlain by the overburden 27 is near the surface it may be desirable to follow the method of the alternate embodiment of the present invention to drive out the fire damp and remove a substantial amount of the moisture content in preparation of coal bed 21 for conventional underground mining in proceeding with mining coal bed 21 by conventional underground mining techniques the mining plan for example could be by the room and pillar method wherein the wells used in the present.