Found a chunk of coal near a rail road yard. How do I burn/ use it? If I’m able to.

I apologize if this is a weird place to post this, but I genuinely need help with the below information and I’m a bit overwhelmed trying to work it out.

I’m writing part of a dnd campaign and I needed something the village could be mining that was flammable for plot reason. Coal was an obvious thought, but admittedly I do not know a lot about mined materials in the first place.

I’m interested in historically knowing how coal ovens and mining during this period would be carried out, and I’m willing to stretch realm of reality somewhat for effects to be overt or obvious. I’m just not sure what exactly there would be, except for black smoke out of chimneys, blackened interiors of housing if not cleaned consistently, and the detrimental effects on miners to help. I’d like for this to have a basis in reality to build off on.

If it matters, additional facts for the village are that it’s very isolated and has no nearby neighbors. They only use the coal for necessities of daily life, but especially for a ceremony of theirs (why it needs to be flammable). They also are heavy on a diet of fermented and pickled foods due to consistently low crop yields and failures, if that matters at all.

One important thing to remember is that you cannot burn coal in a stove designed only for wood burning. The reason is coal burns a lot hotter than wood, and this extra heat may seriously damage a wood stove. On the other hand, burning wood will not damage a coal stove, however, it may be less efficient for heating than using coal.

Less coal use and decline of US coal mining is well known. As is often the case when a part of the economy has setbacks, people look to the state or national government for solutions. But often this has not been very helpful. It is easy to see how coal producing regions have suffered. Places that used to be prosperous in this business in West Virginia, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania - to mention a few - have almost been struck off the map. Whole towns and smaller cities are now mere relics of the past. Technology has not adapted much to advance cleaner and less polluting ways to mine and process coal. The future looks quite bleak for these places if some other kinds of mining and industry will not replace coal. As I see it, the federal government is unlikely to do much more to help these places, and indeed the question remains if helping out is really their job.