They have thought of a lot of ways, but there's just no feasible method. From what I've read, the fires burn pretty deep in most places. The spots where you see smoke, steam, and cracked/heaved earth is just where the seam is close to the surface. There's at least one other coal fire burning in Pennsylvania and more than a few around the world. There's one in China that emits more carbon dioxide in a month than all the cars in the world do in a year or something like that.
Anyway, speaking of coal has anyone read anything about coal liquification? The Governor of either Minnesota or Montana (can't remember which) is pushing it pretty hard since Montana alone could satisfy our energy needs with coal for something like 60 years. The process turns dirty coal into clean burning diesel fuel. The only problem is it releases carbon dioxide in the process but apparently they're working on ways to capture it and use it somehow. South Africa used to use it (and I think they still do) to produce fuel since at one time the world pretty much refused to sell them oil because of Apartheid. The Nazi's invented it because they were starved for fuel until Hitler was able to take control of Romania's oilfields.
Apparently we have enough coal to last for something like 800 years. Most of it is just sitting in the ground because it is high sulfur which we don't burn anymore because of acid rain. So, we'll see I guess...