Heating chloroform with aqueous sodium hydroxide solution forms:
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It produces dichlorocarbene |CCl2|CCl2 by a reaction called α-elimination because both parts of leaving molecule were bonded to the same carbon atom. The mechanism of this reaction is:

Hydroxide is strong enough base to deprotonate at least some chloroform because three chlorine atoms cause the hydrogen to be acidic (pKa=15.7[1]). Also it doesn't matter, that not all of the chloroform is deprotonated as the resulting dichlorocarbene immediately reacts with some molecule in the mixture.
Dichlorocarbene is an intermediate in many useful organic reactions: Reimer–Tiemann reaction, Cyclopropanation ([2+2]-cycloaddition), it can be also used to form allenes.
However using carbenes has a drawback due to their extreme reactivity. They can insert in C-H and C-C bonds, yielding many unwanted byproducts.
Footnotes
[1] Chloroform

Hydroxide is strong enough base to deprotonate at least some chloroform because three chlorine atoms cause the hydrogen to be acidic (pKa=15.7[1]). Also it doesn't matter, that not all of the chloroform is deprotonated as the resulting dichlorocarbene immediately reacts with some molecule in the mixture.
Dichlorocarbene is an intermediate in many useful organic reactions: Reimer–Tiemann reaction, Cyclopropanation ([2+2]-cycloaddition), it can be also used to form allenes.
However using carbenes has a drawback due to their extreme reactivity. They can insert in C-H and C-C bonds, yielding many unwanted byproducts.
Footnotes
[1] Chloroform
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