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Fire Underground
For much of its history, Centralia, Pennsylvania, had a population of around 2,000. By 1981, this had dwindled to just over 1,000—not unusual for a onetime mining town. But as of 2007, Centralia had the unwelcome distinction of being the state’s tiniest municipality, with a population of nine. The reason: an underground fire that began in 1962 has decimated the town with smoke and toxic gases, and has since made history.
Fire Underground is the completely updated classic account of the fire that has been raging under Centralia for decades. David DeKok tells the story of how the fire actually began and how government officials failed to take effective action. By 1981 the fire was spewing deadly gases into homes. A twelve-year-old boy dropped into a steaming hole as a congressman toured nearby. DeKok describes how the people of Centralia banded together to finally win relocation funds—and he reveals what has happened to the few remaining residents as the fiftieth anniversary of the fire’s beginning nears.
Fire Underground is the completely updated classic account of the fire that has been raging under Centralia for decades. David DeKok tells the story of how the fire actually began and how government officials failed to take effective action. By 1981 the fire was spewing deadly gases into homes. A twelve-year-old boy dropped into a steaming hole as a congressman toured nearby. DeKok describes how the people of Centralia banded together to finally win relocation funds—and he reveals what has happened to the few remaining residents as the fiftieth anniversary of the fire’s beginning nears.
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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March 3, 2020
I just finished reading Fire Underground and I don't know what to say about it, I'm too mad. Even giving it a rating by stars seems next to impossible. I feel I should give it one star, but that may give you the idea it's a terribly written book and you shouldn't read it, no, I'm just mad. And I can't very well give it four or five stars for the same reason, I'm too mad. So I'll play it safe and go with three. This book is about the Centralia Mine Fire, something I would think few people would have heard of unless they live where I do, less than an hour away. I could probably be in Centralia in half an hour except for one little thing, it's not there anymore. I've known the coal beneath Centralia was on fire as long as I remember. It just burnt slowly getting closer and closer to the town, I've always known that. I haven't been up that way for a long time, and the last time I was it's kind of creepy driving through the town, which you still can do, you can still see the side walks, and street lights, and almost no houses, and smoke coming out of the ground here and there. A lot closer to me than Centralia was a coal fire, the "burning banks", burning coal refuse banks that were on fire for years and years. You could walk on them and feel the heat from the underground fire, see the smoke, and smell the sulfur, they burnt for so long, you forgot all about them. I can't remember anymore when or how they finally decided to put out the fire.
In Centralia they're still deciding when to put out the fire. They have been since it started in May 1962. That's when the town decided to burn the garbage in their landfill, the landfill that had once been a strip mine, an abandoned strip mine that still had openings leading underground unfortunately. And underground they had abandoned coal mines, that's what we did around here a long time ago, mined coal. Some places still do it, just not near as many. That's the reason there is a Centralia, because there is coal, and because there is coal mining. The closest coal town to me (about 3 miles away) once had three hotels, a movie theater, an opera house, a ball room, stores, restaurants, a bowling alley, it's all gone now, but my dad used to tell stories about it. It's hard to imagine driving through the town now, how it must have looked once. But it's not a pretty town, it never was, not even in those days my dad talks about, it's a coal town. The houses are built close together, white, wood siding, front porches, all the same, all in a row, all getting old, and run down, the days of coal are over. But that doesn't mean we should let the towns just go away, these are people's homes. I thought Centralia was ugly, the people living there probably didn't. The people living there loved their town, most had lived there all their lives, they didn't want to move, they didn't want their houses demolished, they didn't want a fire underground. No one they asked for help seemed to care, or if they cared they had a funny way of showing it. Here is a small list of all the groups "helping" these people since the fire began in 1962:
The Abandoned Mine Lands Fund
Appalachian Regional Commission
Appalachian Regional Development Act
Department of Environmental Resources
Department of Mines and Mineral Industries
Environmental Protection Agency
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
U.S. Office of Surface Mining
Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
U.S. Bureau of Mines
I may have missed a few, I didn't bother listing governors and senators and the like. I'm wondering what would have happened if we would have had a few more people and groups helping Centralia, as it was it only took them twenty years all working together until they had to abandon the town. Here are a few of the helpful things they did, in any order I think of them:
A bureaucratic war over the Centralia mine fire was brewing in Washington between the bureau and its new rival, the U.S. Office of Surface Mining. Both were agencies of the Department of the Interior, but that seemed to make the infighting all the more bitter.
The Appalachian Regional Commission agreed to fund the exploratory drilling phase of the bureau's proposed new Centralia project, using the money that would have funded the dragline trench. It told the bureau it must apply to OSM for the rest, about $5.5 million. The bureau didn't like that one bit.
The crux of the matter was simple: Each agency believed the other was infringing on its turn. OSM expressed its displeasure with the bureau by subjecting its new plan for Centralia to close and skeptical scrutiny. The bureau, in a fit of pique, withheld many of the documents and data OSM needed to evaluate the proposed project.
Malcome Magnuson, who developed the idea of using fly ash to control mine fires, believed the infighting was fatal to Centralia.
Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall gave final approval to the Centralia project on June 14, 1966. Kuebler prepared to put the contract out on bids, but this could not be done until after the contribution contracts were signed on July 20. Bids were opened on August 19, an amended contribution contract was required, and it was signed September 12.....Kuebler allowed the exploratory drilling to begin on November 7, but halted it after only twenty-nine holes had been drilled, some into very hot ground. It made little sense to drill holes if the flush barrier could not be built for months....Empire Contracting finally got the go-ahead to resume drilling on May 8, 1967. Not long after the drilling began the Bureau of Mines discovered to its dismay that the mine fire had moved farther north, toward the homes on Park Street, and west, toward the homes on Locust Avenue and Wood Street, than they ever imagined.
There was not enough money left in the $2.5 million budget to repair the breach, so bureau officials requested an emergency $250,000 appropriation from the Appalachian Regional Commission. It was approved on September 22, 1972, but did not clear the Interior Department bureaucracy until February 1973.
Flynn had received a letter from Flood asking what was going on and was in a hurry to reply. He said the public was concerned that nothing was being done, and said the current Bureau of Mines plans would not be implemented for at least another two months. He suggested to Brennan that some "emergency drilling" be done quickly both to update the bureau plans and to relieve public pressure. Delay followed upon delay. The project was supposed to begin on July 1, 1977, but state and federal officials could not agree on the wording of a cooperation agreement. The bureau wanted DER to agree to a clause that exempted the bureau from any responsibility if the project had bad results. DER refused to sign such an agreement.
In mid-June, when it appeared the cooperation agreement was still distant, the bureau decided to begin Phase I of the project with its own funds. Ten boreholes were drilled "to relieve public pressure, allay fears and anxieties of local residents, and to determine if the mine fire had breached the barrier".....In September the cooperation agreement was concluded to DER's liking and the contract went out on bid. When the bids came back, the lowest was $429,550, pushed by inflation well above the $385,000 authorized for the project. This meant the project had to make a new round-trip through the bureaucracy. Not until February 1978 was the extra money approved, and not until May did the work begin.
I could go on and on, but I won't, you get the idea. Until this was all done there must have been a thousand boreholes in the ground around Centralia. It didn't help the people save their town, but there's a bunch of poles sticking out of the ground all over Centralia, unless someone took them down by now. They also helped by giving people carbon monoxide alarms, they didn't have enough for everyone though, so you either had to share them, passing them from one house to another every other month, hopefully your house will only fill up with carbon monoxide the month you happen to have the alarm, or you can buy a canary. If the bird dies you better get out of the house. And open your windows, all the time, winter, summer, rain snow, don't close your windows. With all those carbon monoxide alarms all over the place, you may still die from the gas, but at least you'll know what happened to you. And if there is too much gas in your house, just call someone for help, they'll come and drill a borehole somewhere near you. I just sighed after that one.
I don't want to talk about this anymore. If you want to know about how sick the people got, about how the ground would just open up here and there, a boy nearly died falling into one of these brand new openings. If you want to know about the sick children, or sick old people, or how people got fighting with each other, some wanting to go, others wanting to stay, which wouldn't have happened if someone would have helped them put the fire out twenty years ago. If you want to know any more of any of that, read the book, I'm going to read something that will make me smile. Happy reading.
In Centralia they're still deciding when to put out the fire. They have been since it started in May 1962. That's when the town decided to burn the garbage in their landfill, the landfill that had once been a strip mine, an abandoned strip mine that still had openings leading underground unfortunately. And underground they had abandoned coal mines, that's what we did around here a long time ago, mined coal. Some places still do it, just not near as many. That's the reason there is a Centralia, because there is coal, and because there is coal mining. The closest coal town to me (about 3 miles away) once had three hotels, a movie theater, an opera house, a ball room, stores, restaurants, a bowling alley, it's all gone now, but my dad used to tell stories about it. It's hard to imagine driving through the town now, how it must have looked once. But it's not a pretty town, it never was, not even in those days my dad talks about, it's a coal town. The houses are built close together, white, wood siding, front porches, all the same, all in a row, all getting old, and run down, the days of coal are over. But that doesn't mean we should let the towns just go away, these are people's homes. I thought Centralia was ugly, the people living there probably didn't. The people living there loved their town, most had lived there all their lives, they didn't want to move, they didn't want their houses demolished, they didn't want a fire underground. No one they asked for help seemed to care, or if they cared they had a funny way of showing it. Here is a small list of all the groups "helping" these people since the fire began in 1962:
The Abandoned Mine Lands Fund
Appalachian Regional Commission
Appalachian Regional Development Act
Department of Environmental Resources
Department of Mines and Mineral Industries
Environmental Protection Agency
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
U.S. Office of Surface Mining
Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
U.S. Bureau of Mines
I may have missed a few, I didn't bother listing governors and senators and the like. I'm wondering what would have happened if we would have had a few more people and groups helping Centralia, as it was it only took them twenty years all working together until they had to abandon the town. Here are a few of the helpful things they did, in any order I think of them:
A bureaucratic war over the Centralia mine fire was brewing in Washington between the bureau and its new rival, the U.S. Office of Surface Mining. Both were agencies of the Department of the Interior, but that seemed to make the infighting all the more bitter.
The Appalachian Regional Commission agreed to fund the exploratory drilling phase of the bureau's proposed new Centralia project, using the money that would have funded the dragline trench. It told the bureau it must apply to OSM for the rest, about $5.5 million. The bureau didn't like that one bit.
The crux of the matter was simple: Each agency believed the other was infringing on its turn. OSM expressed its displeasure with the bureau by subjecting its new plan for Centralia to close and skeptical scrutiny. The bureau, in a fit of pique, withheld many of the documents and data OSM needed to evaluate the proposed project.
Malcome Magnuson, who developed the idea of using fly ash to control mine fires, believed the infighting was fatal to Centralia.
Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall gave final approval to the Centralia project on June 14, 1966. Kuebler prepared to put the contract out on bids, but this could not be done until after the contribution contracts were signed on July 20. Bids were opened on August 19, an amended contribution contract was required, and it was signed September 12.....Kuebler allowed the exploratory drilling to begin on November 7, but halted it after only twenty-nine holes had been drilled, some into very hot ground. It made little sense to drill holes if the flush barrier could not be built for months....Empire Contracting finally got the go-ahead to resume drilling on May 8, 1967. Not long after the drilling began the Bureau of Mines discovered to its dismay that the mine fire had moved farther north, toward the homes on Park Street, and west, toward the homes on Locust Avenue and Wood Street, than they ever imagined.
There was not enough money left in the $2.5 million budget to repair the breach, so bureau officials requested an emergency $250,000 appropriation from the Appalachian Regional Commission. It was approved on September 22, 1972, but did not clear the Interior Department bureaucracy until February 1973.
Flynn had received a letter from Flood asking what was going on and was in a hurry to reply. He said the public was concerned that nothing was being done, and said the current Bureau of Mines plans would not be implemented for at least another two months. He suggested to Brennan that some "emergency drilling" be done quickly both to update the bureau plans and to relieve public pressure. Delay followed upon delay. The project was supposed to begin on July 1, 1977, but state and federal officials could not agree on the wording of a cooperation agreement. The bureau wanted DER to agree to a clause that exempted the bureau from any responsibility if the project had bad results. DER refused to sign such an agreement.
In mid-June, when it appeared the cooperation agreement was still distant, the bureau decided to begin Phase I of the project with its own funds. Ten boreholes were drilled "to relieve public pressure, allay fears and anxieties of local residents, and to determine if the mine fire had breached the barrier".....In September the cooperation agreement was concluded to DER's liking and the contract went out on bid. When the bids came back, the lowest was $429,550, pushed by inflation well above the $385,000 authorized for the project. This meant the project had to make a new round-trip through the bureaucracy. Not until February 1978 was the extra money approved, and not until May did the work begin.
I could go on and on, but I won't, you get the idea. Until this was all done there must have been a thousand boreholes in the ground around Centralia. It didn't help the people save their town, but there's a bunch of poles sticking out of the ground all over Centralia, unless someone took them down by now. They also helped by giving people carbon monoxide alarms, they didn't have enough for everyone though, so you either had to share them, passing them from one house to another every other month, hopefully your house will only fill up with carbon monoxide the month you happen to have the alarm, or you can buy a canary. If the bird dies you better get out of the house. And open your windows, all the time, winter, summer, rain snow, don't close your windows. With all those carbon monoxide alarms all over the place, you may still die from the gas, but at least you'll know what happened to you. And if there is too much gas in your house, just call someone for help, they'll come and drill a borehole somewhere near you. I just sighed after that one.
I don't want to talk about this anymore. If you want to know about how sick the people got, about how the ground would just open up here and there, a boy nearly died falling into one of these brand new openings. If you want to know about the sick children, or sick old people, or how people got fighting with each other, some wanting to go, others wanting to stay, which wouldn't have happened if someone would have helped them put the fire out twenty years ago. If you want to know any more of any of that, read the book, I'm going to read something that will make me smile. Happy reading.
November 17, 2014
I grew up a few miles from this town. Went to school with kids from there. Saw a lot of the things depicted and people in it on the evening news. I watched the town die piecemeal over the course of a few decades. I'm pretty familiar with what happened. And yet this book still gave me a rage-induced migraine.
DeKok depicts the sort of buck-passing, short-sightedness, and general dumbfuckery that passes for government in this country in stupefying detail. When conservatives decry 'big government' and its incompetence, they can trot out cases like this all day. Who could argue with them? (Of course, they will ignore the fact that they, themselves, help create a lot of the problems they decry). Government agencies that have responsibility and oversight defer that oversight to other agencies that don't want it either. Governor Dick Thornburg (exactly the Dick I remember him to be) acts with all the grace and empathy of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION's Warden Norton. His Nixonian administration is obsessed with making sure 'the state doesn't get stuck with the bill', coldly ignoring the fact that 'the state' in question is Pennsylvania where Centralia is located. So he doesn't want Pennsylvania stuck with the bill for, you know, helping Pennsylvanians. *spoiler alert* It does anyway, plus interest.
Also interesting (euphemism here for 'jaw-droppingly insane and maddening beyond comprehension') is Centralia's citizen's own behavior. How they act against their own interests...it's like a mini-study of Tea Party thinking. People deny there is a problem in the face of all evidence right under their (feet) noses. They concoct conspiracy theories. They will not be moved from their homes in the name of FREEDOM! It's madness. It's all-too-familiar. One citizen, Helen Womer, operates at a level of cognitive dissonance that would kill most higher-thinking organisms. It's astonishing, the type of reaction a sheer terror of reality can produce.
That said, let me state some criticisms of the book. Yes, it it exhaustively researched. However, that doesn't necessarily yield a gripping narrative. The prose is serviceable and clear. There are lots of bureaucrats, officials, and citizenry named and keeping the labyrinthine chain of names and how they connect straight is a lot of work. If I weren't so connected to the area and already familiar with it, reading it might have been a bit of a chore. So considering all that, if you're interested in PA history and politics, I recommend this book highly. If you're not, this book likely isn't your bag.
DeKok depicts the sort of buck-passing, short-sightedness, and general dumbfuckery that passes for government in this country in stupefying detail. When conservatives decry 'big government' and its incompetence, they can trot out cases like this all day. Who could argue with them? (Of course, they will ignore the fact that they, themselves, help create a lot of the problems they decry). Government agencies that have responsibility and oversight defer that oversight to other agencies that don't want it either. Governor Dick Thornburg (exactly the Dick I remember him to be) acts with all the grace and empathy of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION's Warden Norton. His Nixonian administration is obsessed with making sure 'the state doesn't get stuck with the bill', coldly ignoring the fact that 'the state' in question is Pennsylvania where Centralia is located. So he doesn't want Pennsylvania stuck with the bill for, you know, helping Pennsylvanians. *spoiler alert* It does anyway, plus interest.
Also interesting (euphemism here for 'jaw-droppingly insane and maddening beyond comprehension') is Centralia's citizen's own behavior. How they act against their own interests...it's like a mini-study of Tea Party thinking. People deny there is a problem in the face of all evidence right under their (feet) noses. They concoct conspiracy theories. They will not be moved from their homes in the name of FREEDOM! It's madness. It's all-too-familiar. One citizen, Helen Womer, operates at a level of cognitive dissonance that would kill most higher-thinking organisms. It's astonishing, the type of reaction a sheer terror of reality can produce.
That said, let me state some criticisms of the book. Yes, it it exhaustively researched. However, that doesn't necessarily yield a gripping narrative. The prose is serviceable and clear. There are lots of bureaucrats, officials, and citizenry named and keeping the labyrinthine chain of names and how they connect straight is a lot of work. If I weren't so connected to the area and already familiar with it, reading it might have been a bit of a chore. So considering all that, if you're interested in PA history and politics, I recommend this book highly. If you're not, this book likely isn't your bag.
June 4, 2014
I should start this review by saying that this is among the most well-researched books I have ever read. This book is clearly the result of years of hard labor on the author's part. Unfortunately, that doesn't translate into a gripping read.
I am a huge fan of historical non-fiction, and while the topic of this book is interesting, it is not a book for someone who prefers his or her non-fiction to read like a thriller. I think this book is a required read for residents of Centralia and the surrounding areas, people with a technical interest in mining, and anyone who works for a government agency. It is probably one of the most horrifying (but unfortunately true) tales of government buck-passing, pissing matches, red tape, and disregard for working class people I've ever read.
All that being said, the book is not a fast-paced read. It moves slowly, gets bogged down in technical detail about the mine fire and the various attempts to contain it, and becomes a confused mass of government employees, politicians, and Centralia citizens. I would not recommend this book for the casual historical non-fiction enthusiast, but it does have great value for people looking to read about the devastating effects of government inaction.
I am a huge fan of historical non-fiction, and while the topic of this book is interesting, it is not a book for someone who prefers his or her non-fiction to read like a thriller. I think this book is a required read for residents of Centralia and the surrounding areas, people with a technical interest in mining, and anyone who works for a government agency. It is probably one of the most horrifying (but unfortunately true) tales of government buck-passing, pissing matches, red tape, and disregard for working class people I've ever read.
All that being said, the book is not a fast-paced read. It moves slowly, gets bogged down in technical detail about the mine fire and the various attempts to contain it, and becomes a confused mass of government employees, politicians, and Centralia citizens. I would not recommend this book for the casual historical non-fiction enthusiast, but it does have great value for people looking to read about the devastating effects of government inaction.
July 25, 2020
It was Silent Hill that made me want to read this book and the real story is really interesting and it makes you feel sorry for the residents of Centralia.Its sad that it's now a town with hardly anybody living there now.
April 28, 2020
It started as an attempt to 'clean-up' the Centralia land-fill before the Memorial Day in 1962. It was a a former strip mine that the town council had negotiated with the owning coal company to use as a landfill to deter people from using the unofficial ones scattered about the town. The several holes and pits in the walls and floor had to be filled with a non-combustible material since those holes likely cut into the various mines that underlay the entire area - some legal, some bootleg by owners of the homes sitting over the vein.
The volunteer fire department would stand by to extinguish the fire which would rid the dump of vermin, excess paper and most of the odors with multiple loads of water, disturbing the piles and drenching them again. This time, they used a back-loader to create a central pile and it is likely from that central location that the fire still burned in the lower layers. Smoke and steam rose the following days and it was again drenched with water.
There is a difference of opinion on whether the remains of this fire caused some thin tendrils of coal to catch and burrow into the underlaying seams or whether a fire caused by an explosion in 1932 - and never believed fully extinguished - had reached the landfill area in 1962. Either way, the fire burned and moved along the anthracite coal beneath and surrounding Centralia. A local was willing to dig the fire out in July of 1962 for $175. It was deemed too expensive a cost and the fire wasn't that big.
I won't go into details because it is a case of denial - both of the residents of Centralia as well as numerous government agencies at the local, state and federal level. That the burning gases of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide as well as the low levels of oxygen were not hazardous to the health of the residents. That there wasn't a fire under the town - or it was minor - and the government just wanted the residents to relocate because they wanted the coal underneath. That the bore holes dug in various yards showed a wide fluctuation of temperatures at different times showing that the fire was moving meant nothing. Then there were the bright flames discovered where the seam ended at a cliff-side which became a tourist attraction until it burned itself out. Trees coming down with the roots and base charred black. Subsidence and sinkholes and cracks in sidewalks, yards and roads that issued steam. No snow coverage in certain areas due to the warmth rising from below.
This was a political 'hot potato' that no one wanted to deal with. The U.S. Office of Surface Mining. The U.S. Department of the Interior. The Pennsylvania Abandoned Mine Lands Fund. The U.S. Bureau of Mines. The state Department of Environmental Resources. Pennsylvania Department of Mines and Mineral Industries. The Centralia Council asked for help and the political machinery was willing to make suggestions as long as the expense didn't come out of their budget.
It was 20 years later - yes, 20 years! - that the first set of re-locations happened and the offers were the appraised value of their homes less a fee due to the fire. Most relocated outside of Centralia, near the town of Byrnesville. It wasn't until 1992 (30 years after the fire started) that then-governor Bob Casey declared eminent domain and the relocation of all residents with the demolition of all town buildings began in 2012. Yep, count it, 40 years later.
At this time, there are only a couple of people still in residence. They fought for the right to stay in their town until their deaths. The fire itself still burns. It still consumes the underlying coal and moves south. It was recently - during the state mandate to stay home during the coronavirus, that the abandoned state highway section that passed by Centralia - sold to a private corporation - was buried beneath tons of dirt as people were visiting the 'graffiti highway'. Even the town where so many moved to, Byresville, which was supposed to not be affected by the fire for at least 200 years, was abandoned and demolished in the late 1990's.
And the fire still burns. It's watched but the cost to extinguish it has skyrocketed into the hundreds of millions. Also, additional maps are still being found showing even more tunnels, doglegs, and bootlegs that confirm that the flushing as well as any barrier would not have worked. There were too many places the fire could access more air and more material to consume. The answer was to dig it out and that answer was eliminated decades ago.
2020-083
The volunteer fire department would stand by to extinguish the fire which would rid the dump of vermin, excess paper and most of the odors with multiple loads of water, disturbing the piles and drenching them again. This time, they used a back-loader to create a central pile and it is likely from that central location that the fire still burned in the lower layers. Smoke and steam rose the following days and it was again drenched with water.
There is a difference of opinion on whether the remains of this fire caused some thin tendrils of coal to catch and burrow into the underlaying seams or whether a fire caused by an explosion in 1932 - and never believed fully extinguished - had reached the landfill area in 1962. Either way, the fire burned and moved along the anthracite coal beneath and surrounding Centralia. A local was willing to dig the fire out in July of 1962 for $175. It was deemed too expensive a cost and the fire wasn't that big.
I won't go into details because it is a case of denial - both of the residents of Centralia as well as numerous government agencies at the local, state and federal level. That the burning gases of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide as well as the low levels of oxygen were not hazardous to the health of the residents. That there wasn't a fire under the town - or it was minor - and the government just wanted the residents to relocate because they wanted the coal underneath. That the bore holes dug in various yards showed a wide fluctuation of temperatures at different times showing that the fire was moving meant nothing. Then there were the bright flames discovered where the seam ended at a cliff-side which became a tourist attraction until it burned itself out. Trees coming down with the roots and base charred black. Subsidence and sinkholes and cracks in sidewalks, yards and roads that issued steam. No snow coverage in certain areas due to the warmth rising from below.
This was a political 'hot potato' that no one wanted to deal with. The U.S. Office of Surface Mining. The U.S. Department of the Interior. The Pennsylvania Abandoned Mine Lands Fund. The U.S. Bureau of Mines. The state Department of Environmental Resources. Pennsylvania Department of Mines and Mineral Industries. The Centralia Council asked for help and the political machinery was willing to make suggestions as long as the expense didn't come out of their budget.
It was 20 years later - yes, 20 years! - that the first set of re-locations happened and the offers were the appraised value of their homes less a fee due to the fire. Most relocated outside of Centralia, near the town of Byrnesville. It wasn't until 1992 (30 years after the fire started) that then-governor Bob Casey declared eminent domain and the relocation of all residents with the demolition of all town buildings began in 2012. Yep, count it, 40 years later.
At this time, there are only a couple of people still in residence. They fought for the right to stay in their town until their deaths. The fire itself still burns. It still consumes the underlying coal and moves south. It was recently - during the state mandate to stay home during the coronavirus, that the abandoned state highway section that passed by Centralia - sold to a private corporation - was buried beneath tons of dirt as people were visiting the 'graffiti highway'. Even the town where so many moved to, Byresville, which was supposed to not be affected by the fire for at least 200 years, was abandoned and demolished in the late 1990's.
And the fire still burns. It's watched but the cost to extinguish it has skyrocketed into the hundreds of millions. Also, additional maps are still being found showing even more tunnels, doglegs, and bootlegs that confirm that the flushing as well as any barrier would not have worked. There were too many places the fire could access more air and more material to consume. The answer was to dig it out and that answer was eliminated decades ago.
2020-083
April 27, 2023
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.
One thing became fairly clear to me quite early in this book: no matter how much one might want to blame the coal industry for this chronic disaster – and believe me, I DID want to blame Big Coal at first – you can't pin this on any one actor or set of actors. There was a perfect storm of factors that allowed it to happen and allowed it to go on. Without over a century of coal mining, the shafts that allowed air down into the still-rich coal seams wouldn't have been there. Without rampant bootleg mining by locals after the company shut down the operation, there wouldn't have been so many uncharted openings into the coal seam. Without the negligence of the city council thinking it was a good idea to set a garbage dump in an old coal strip mine pit on fire, the fire itself probably wouldn't have started. And without years of red-tape bureaucracy and penny-wise, pound-foolish tactics of various government agencies, perhaps it could have been stopped early while it was still a “small” mine fire, before it became an unstoppable juggernaut that would burn unchecked for the next 50 years. (And it could easily burn for another century or more.)
But as the story unfolds, it does begin, at least from DeKok's point of view, to seem very much like the biggest culprit is the government. At around the 1/3 to 1/2 mark, I was feeling fairly unsympathetic toward the citizens because some of them refused government buy-out offers. But as I kept vreading, it became apparent how slow and stingy the buyout offers were, and how some citizens fought for decades to get any buyout offers at all because they wanted to leave but couldn't afford to go without a buyout. It gradually became clear to me that the citizens of Centralia were the victims of decades of political infighting among various federal and state agencies who didn't want to be stuck with even the cost of buying them out, let alone the cost of actually trying to stop the fire. They were hindered even more by increasingly bitter factionalism within Centralia itself over the right way to solve the problem... or whether there even was a problem.
As a micro-history of the fire, this book is... exhaustive. It's the result of the 30+ years DeKok spent covering the fire as a local journalist, and it shows. Some might find it exhausting, although I'll admit I found it endlessly engrossing. It begins with the area's long history of coal mining, the story of how the fire began, and details year after year of meetings, studies, letters, conspiracy theories, protests, memoranda, government games of “hot potato,” promises made and broken, feuds, outright lies told, crucial data covered up, and unsuccessful efforts to control the fire.
All the while, the fire continued to spread, more homes were invaded by deadly mine gases, and cave-ins became more common. There was a point where it began to remind me of The Curse of Oak Island because so many different people had come in to drill bore holes to try to find out exactly what was down there – it seemed that eventually, like Oak Island, the town would be nothing but holes, none of them leading to a solution. But what I felt was lacking was a larger context for the Centralia story in the consciousness of a nation. For example, I wondered going in if Centralia might be a big part of the reason we know so much more about the dangers of carbon monoxide today, but those kinds of bigger-picture questions like, “How has this informed our understanding of indoor air pollution?” are never addressed.
Mine fires are not a new problem, and they are notoriously difficult and expensive to fight. Coal companies have been driven into bankruptcy trying to put them out. There are mining companies mentioned in this story willing to help deal with mine fires, and at least one who was willing to do it without a dollar of government money, simply in exchange for the recoverable coal they could get in the process. But they were stymied by g-men who didn't want to do anything themselves, but wouldn't let others do it either.
Centralia isn't even the first Pennsylvania mine fire to burn for 50+ years – the book mentions another one that burned from about 1890-1940, and also mentions the nearby Laurel Run mine fire, which began in 1915 and had already been burning for 40 years at the time Centralia was trying to get funds to fight its own fire in the 1960s. The Laurel Run fire was considered to be the more high-ranking problem at the time, and had better political advocacy – it got the government money, which wasn't enough to put it out, and it also still burns to this day, making it a disaster of much longer duration than Centralia. A lot of this book calls out the government bungling that prevented this fire from being properly dealt with, but it seems to me the Laurel Run fire is an object lesson – it got the government action that Centralia didn't get, and yet it still also burns today despite an apparent lack of government bungling.
All of which begs the question why the Centralia fire is the one that became so famous in the internet age. DeKok never directly addresses this, but hints late in the book that it might be because Centralia, while only one of at least a dozen other mine fires burning in Pennsylvania during this period, was the only one that threatened the very existence of an entire community. There's also an off-hand mention quite late in the book that government officials had acknowledged since 1981 that Centralia was “the worst abandoned mine land problem in the state, if not in the nation.” Or maybe it was because it was the only one that went neglected for so long. I'm left guessing because DeKok doesn't address that.
How did it end? As you can see from the word “ongoing” in the title, it still hasn't truly ended. Finally, after nearly 25 years of fighting, . And the fire continues to be a problem because . (I don't know how necessary it really is to spoiler code a non-fiction account like this, but you can read it or not as you choose.)
As to my personal feelings, it was hard for me to understand the motivations of the diehards who refused to go. I simply can't grasp that level of devotion to a particular patch of land. After all, most Americans today are descendants of immigrants, of people who packed up and left their ancestral homes and started over on a distant shore. You might say starting over in a new place is a kind of American tradition. I guarantee I would have been one of the first to go when buyouts were offered. But then, I not only don't live in the same house where I was born, or even in the town where I grew up, but I also don't live in the very house my grandparents built a century ago, like John Lokitis. There were residents of Centralia who were descended from signers of the Declaration of Independence and whose families had lived in that area since the 1700s. I'm only a 4th-generation American, and my grandfather was a Coast Guard man who lived on every shore of this country when my mother was a child. I was only born in Texas and live here now because one day around 1950, my grandfather was re-assigned here from Seattle. I just don't and probably never will understand having the kind of deeply rooted attachment to a place that some of these people did and still do.
One thing became fairly clear to me quite early in this book: no matter how much one might want to blame the coal industry for this chronic disaster – and believe me, I DID want to blame Big Coal at first – you can't pin this on any one actor or set of actors. There was a perfect storm of factors that allowed it to happen and allowed it to go on. Without over a century of coal mining, the shafts that allowed air down into the still-rich coal seams wouldn't have been there. Without rampant bootleg mining by locals after the company shut down the operation, there wouldn't have been so many uncharted openings into the coal seam. Without the negligence of the city council thinking it was a good idea to set a garbage dump in an old coal strip mine pit on fire, the fire itself probably wouldn't have started. And without years of red-tape bureaucracy and penny-wise, pound-foolish tactics of various government agencies, perhaps it could have been stopped early while it was still a “small” mine fire, before it became an unstoppable juggernaut that would burn unchecked for the next 50 years. (And it could easily burn for another century or more.)
But as the story unfolds, it does begin, at least from DeKok's point of view, to seem very much like the biggest culprit is the government. At around the 1/3 to 1/2 mark, I was feeling fairly unsympathetic toward the citizens because some of them refused government buy-out offers. But as I kept vreading, it became apparent how slow and stingy the buyout offers were, and how some citizens fought for decades to get any buyout offers at all because they wanted to leave but couldn't afford to go without a buyout. It gradually became clear to me that the citizens of Centralia were the victims of decades of political infighting among various federal and state agencies who didn't want to be stuck with even the cost of buying them out, let alone the cost of actually trying to stop the fire. They were hindered even more by increasingly bitter factionalism within Centralia itself over the right way to solve the problem... or whether there even was a problem.
As a micro-history of the fire, this book is... exhaustive. It's the result of the 30+ years DeKok spent covering the fire as a local journalist, and it shows. Some might find it exhausting, although I'll admit I found it endlessly engrossing. It begins with the area's long history of coal mining, the story of how the fire began, and details year after year of meetings, studies, letters, conspiracy theories, protests, memoranda, government games of “hot potato,” promises made and broken, feuds, outright lies told, crucial data covered up, and unsuccessful efforts to control the fire.
All the while, the fire continued to spread, more homes were invaded by deadly mine gases, and cave-ins became more common. There was a point where it began to remind me of The Curse of Oak Island because so many different people had come in to drill bore holes to try to find out exactly what was down there – it seemed that eventually, like Oak Island, the town would be nothing but holes, none of them leading to a solution. But what I felt was lacking was a larger context for the Centralia story in the consciousness of a nation. For example, I wondered going in if Centralia might be a big part of the reason we know so much more about the dangers of carbon monoxide today, but those kinds of bigger-picture questions like, “How has this informed our understanding of indoor air pollution?” are never addressed.
Mine fires are not a new problem, and they are notoriously difficult and expensive to fight. Coal companies have been driven into bankruptcy trying to put them out. There are mining companies mentioned in this story willing to help deal with mine fires, and at least one who was willing to do it without a dollar of government money, simply in exchange for the recoverable coal they could get in the process. But they were stymied by g-men who didn't want to do anything themselves, but wouldn't let others do it either.
Centralia isn't even the first Pennsylvania mine fire to burn for 50+ years – the book mentions another one that burned from about 1890-1940, and also mentions the nearby Laurel Run mine fire, which began in 1915 and had already been burning for 40 years at the time Centralia was trying to get funds to fight its own fire in the 1960s. The Laurel Run fire was considered to be the more high-ranking problem at the time, and had better political advocacy – it got the government money, which wasn't enough to put it out, and it also still burns to this day, making it a disaster of much longer duration than Centralia. A lot of this book calls out the government bungling that prevented this fire from being properly dealt with, but it seems to me the Laurel Run fire is an object lesson – it got the government action that Centralia didn't get, and yet it still also burns today despite an apparent lack of government bungling.
All of which begs the question why the Centralia fire is the one that became so famous in the internet age. DeKok never directly addresses this, but hints late in the book that it might be because Centralia, while only one of at least a dozen other mine fires burning in Pennsylvania during this period, was the only one that threatened the very existence of an entire community. There's also an off-hand mention quite late in the book that government officials had acknowledged since 1981 that Centralia was “the worst abandoned mine land problem in the state, if not in the nation.” Or maybe it was because it was the only one that went neglected for so long. I'm left guessing because DeKok doesn't address that.
How did it end? As you can see from the word “ongoing” in the title, it still hasn't truly ended. Finally, after nearly 25 years of fighting, . And the fire continues to be a problem because . (I don't know how necessary it really is to spoiler code a non-fiction account like this, but you can read it or not as you choose.)
As to my personal feelings, it was hard for me to understand the motivations of the diehards who refused to go. I simply can't grasp that level of devotion to a particular patch of land. After all, most Americans today are descendants of immigrants, of people who packed up and left their ancestral homes and started over on a distant shore. You might say starting over in a new place is a kind of American tradition. I guarantee I would have been one of the first to go when buyouts were offered. But then, I not only don't live in the same house where I was born, or even in the town where I grew up, but I also don't live in the very house my grandparents built a century ago, like John Lokitis. There were residents of Centralia who were descended from signers of the Declaration of Independence and whose families had lived in that area since the 1700s. I'm only a 4th-generation American, and my grandfather was a Coast Guard man who lived on every shore of this country when my mother was a child. I was only born in Texas and live here now because one day around 1950, my grandfather was re-assigned here from Seattle. I just don't and probably never will understand having the kind of deeply rooted attachment to a place that some of these people did and still do.
September 13, 2019
I've been completely fascinated by the Centralia mine fire since I first heard about it in 2007, so I loved this book. There was so much information on the history of the fire, the town, and the people involved -- everything I could've hoped to learn was in there. It was a real page-turner, too. (Even though I know how the story ended, I still found myself becoming hopeful every time some potential solution was presented, then was infuriated when it wasn't carried through.) I only wish there had been more & larger pictures. Can't recommend this book enough.
August 23, 2010
Amazing story, very interesting read. I past my stop on the subway because I got caught up in the book. Went all the way to the end of the line before looking up.
May 1, 2023
It was a comment on a YouTube video that mentioned Centrailia, PA and the mine fire. I could remember this from hearing a news story many years ago.
This book was a great and detailed history of the events that started the fire, how it grew, and why it was not put out.
On one level, this is a great story of a small town in coal country. It was anthracite coal. Hard coal.
The other side of this story or history, is how the different government agencies, bureaucrats and politicians handled this, right from day 1.
First, the local people tried to ignore it, not wanting to admit that it existed, fearing they would be blamed.
Then, the stories were more about who was to blame and not how to fix it. Moving to county government, the same thing, the state, same thing, and federal, same thing. The author has the dates, facts, figures and names of people to the story.
The hard fact was that this was a small town, not politically connected. The town had no leverage on anyone.
No one cared about the overall issue, they only cared about how it looked politically to them personally. Sad, but true.
The end result, the town set this fire themselves, as part of cleaning up an illegal dump site in the town, in an old strip mine trench. It was beside a cemetery that they wanted to clean up before Memorial Day. 1962. The fire is still burning, but no one really knows how big it is, what it has burned, where it is right now, exactly. There will be health issues to the original town folk, for years to come, it many have already died as it has been going for over 60 years now.
Even the town people could not agree on what to do. When given the chance to move and to be paid for their properties, 20+ years after the fact, a small number refused.
There are many more details….
Good read if you like history of small town America.
This book was a great and detailed history of the events that started the fire, how it grew, and why it was not put out.
On one level, this is a great story of a small town in coal country. It was anthracite coal. Hard coal.
The other side of this story or history, is how the different government agencies, bureaucrats and politicians handled this, right from day 1.
First, the local people tried to ignore it, not wanting to admit that it existed, fearing they would be blamed.
Then, the stories were more about who was to blame and not how to fix it. Moving to county government, the same thing, the state, same thing, and federal, same thing. The author has the dates, facts, figures and names of people to the story.
The hard fact was that this was a small town, not politically connected. The town had no leverage on anyone.
No one cared about the overall issue, they only cared about how it looked politically to them personally. Sad, but true.
The end result, the town set this fire themselves, as part of cleaning up an illegal dump site in the town, in an old strip mine trench. It was beside a cemetery that they wanted to clean up before Memorial Day. 1962. The fire is still burning, but no one really knows how big it is, what it has burned, where it is right now, exactly. There will be health issues to the original town folk, for years to come, it many have already died as it has been going for over 60 years now.
Even the town people could not agree on what to do. When given the chance to move and to be paid for their properties, 20+ years after the fact, a small number refused.
There are many more details….
Good read if you like history of small town America.
January 19, 2023
3.5 stars. I have been fascinated by Centralia for years, and this was an incredibly thorough account of the bureaucratic nightmare that essentially led to the destruction of an entire town. DeKok clearly cares deeply about his subject and covers the tale from the very beginnings of the fire to where the situation stood in 2010. The book helpfully includes a small map of the town and a list of acronyms for the many agencies and organizations involved in the fiasco, but I would have also appreciated a list of individuals who were involved, perhaps broken up into different categories, as my biggest complaint about the book was that I had a difficult time keeping track of the multitudes of names being thrown around and which agency they worked for. The tone is also a little dry, but I appreciate that DeKok didn't try to pad the book out with unnecessary filler in the name of making it a little more palatable.
Overall, I'd recommend for anyone with an interest in Centralia or anyone looking to be absolutely infuriated at how bureaucracy and governmental infighting can screw up a situation in incredibly frustrating ways.
Overall, I'd recommend for anyone with an interest in Centralia or anyone looking to be absolutely infuriated at how bureaucracy and governmental infighting can screw up a situation in incredibly frustrating ways.
May 22, 2024
Here's my frustration: the story of the Centralia mine fire is a fascinating tale of hubris and bureaucracy and self-delusion. It's an encapsulation of many of the climate change stories that surround us today --- something horrible is going to or is currently happening, but are we doing anything about it?
But DeKok, a newspaper writer, writes the book as a series of newspaper articles. There's a cast of hundreds, and they are all included, regardless if you can keep track of them or not. It took me quite awhile to understand the different state and federal agencies involved and their priorities, and there are so many details involved that's it easy to get lost. I really wanted a more heavily edited and more reflective text than this provided. As a comprehensive history, I am sure it's effective, but as a reading experience, I was ready for it to be over.
But DeKok, a newspaper writer, writes the book as a series of newspaper articles. There's a cast of hundreds, and they are all included, regardless if you can keep track of them or not. It took me quite awhile to understand the different state and federal agencies involved and their priorities, and there are so many details involved that's it easy to get lost. I really wanted a more heavily edited and more reflective text than this provided. As a comprehensive history, I am sure it's effective, but as a reading experience, I was ready for it to be over.
Read
September 19, 2024This book is written by a journalist and is written in a journalistic style. It is an excellent history of the fire. It reads like a news story not a novel. If you are looking for a novel this is not it. That said it is a thorough account of the residents, local, state and federal governments roles in the fire.
Living about 80 miles from Centralia I have been to the village on two occasions in the late 80’s and mid 90’s. Pictures and the written description cannot compare to witnessing the actual destruction to the village and the ruminants left behind.
I highly recommend the book for someone looking for the story from start to finish. If you are looking a novel I would recommend Lisa Scottaline’s “Dirty Blonde.” Centralia and the fire play a major role in the novel.
Living about 80 miles from Centralia I have been to the village on two occasions in the late 80’s and mid 90’s. Pictures and the written description cannot compare to witnessing the actual destruction to the village and the ruminants left behind.
I highly recommend the book for someone looking for the story from start to finish. If you are looking a novel I would recommend Lisa Scottaline’s “Dirty Blonde.” Centralia and the fire play a major role in the novel.
March 7, 2020
I picked up this books because I’ve be interested in the Centralia mine fire since I first heard about it. You can’t argue that this book is well-researched and probably the most complete account of what went on. However this book is just dull. The author seems more interested in telling you everything and anything he knows about the fire and less about telling and interesting story. This book would have benefited from some edits and maybe more focus on the people of Centralia and less on the bureaucracy and politics.
December 31, 2018
What a fantastic book. At times this book reads like a comedy, you can’t believe the government, the “experts “, those in authority could be so stupid, or ignorant, or worse, so callous about the health and well-being of citizens of this country.
This is an amazing book and proves once again that the road to hell, is paved with good intentions, and that you should never blindly trust anyone, especially the government.
This is an amazing book and proves once again that the road to hell, is paved with good intentions, and that you should never blindly trust anyone, especially the government.
May 2, 2021
Intriguing story about the fire burning under Centralia, PA, for over 50 years now, how it started, and how badly everything was handled from the start as to containment and putting it out. I actually thought I’d skip parts of the story but kept reading as new details were shared. What an interesting story...and it’s not far from where I live so that brought some personal meaning and connection to these events.
May 21, 2018
Fascinating read on a town lost. Always wondered about the story behind the story and this book delves deep. Also makes one realize that politics and politicians have always been corrupt and self-involved. No different than now. However, there are a few good players and they are the ones who we hope win out in the end. Sadly, Centralia lost. Shame.
April 1, 2021
I was expecting to find this book heavy going, but actually it is not the academic experience you might expect. While the characters in the book would benefit from a little more description, it's a well-written and fascinating account of government beaurocracy getting in the way of helping human beings, which is ultimately what government should be doing.
March 12, 2023
I feel like people are rating the situation vs the book. The situation is awful and was handled in the worst ways possible. The book is informative and well researched but is so dry it burns slower than the actual fires.
April 8, 2023
Super informative. Makes you angry and confused. It's definitely not a light read, so get ready for lots of names and dates. This one took me a long time to read because of the heavy topic. I would still recommend it!
February 24, 2024
Incredible story. Hard to believe it's real! But then again, not hard to believe at all. It dragged through portions, and I wish maybe for a break in narrative style or other anecdote? Just to push it along? 3.5 stars rounded up.
June 12, 2019
Best Account of Centralia’s Tragedy
If you want the facts and details. Read this book. The story is sad but the lessons gained are well worth your time
If you want the facts and details. Read this book. The story is sad but the lessons gained are well worth your time
December 4, 2021
Great book but slow
January 31, 2023
Another tragedy that was able to get out of hand due to government incompetence.
February 9, 2023
Excellent, very bureaucratic but that's the way it went (and goes). Incredibly sad, but a laugh here and there and a wonderful record of the courage and fight in people!
Read
August 9, 2023A very thorough accounting of the Centralia mine fire, from 1962 when it started, to almost the current day. The book was written as the 50th anniversary approached.
December 24, 2023
Informative, but so very dry. I'm sure there are many stories that could have been told to add a personal feel to this book. Obviously a ton of research was done, but it wasn't any fun to read.
October 17, 2024
A sad sad story, but riveting.
August 20, 2025
It’s alot to take in with names and politics but absolutely fascinating
September 3, 2025
Informative but dry reading. Doesn't feel very personal but very factual.
August 8, 2010
Having first heard of the Centralia Mine Fire while listening to Bill Bryson's 'A Walk in the Woods', I wanted to read more. This book is a new edition of the author's 1986 book 'Unseen Danger' and brings the story up to 2009. The style is very journalistic; I think it fits the material very well (after all, the author is a reporter). Even without a lot of embroidery, the book is over 250 pages long.
For anyone who has ever doubted the ineptness (and lack of common sense) among government bureaucrats, this one's for you! From the fire's beginning in 1962 (probably started by a dump fire) through the 1980's, there is no end to the strange and seemingly senseless decisions (or lack thereof). The hardships the people of this town endured are unbelievable. And the comments from the PA Dept. of Health...well, I felt like the AFLAC duck at times (QU-a-a-a-k???).
There are also many odd ducks in this story. Some residents denied the existence of a mine fire under the town at all, some believed the lack of government response was to get them to leave so the gov't could snatch the coal below the town (yup, another conspiracy theory), and the response of some of the government officials would be considered a stretch in a work of fiction.
Most people in the town have relocated, though there are some who still live there (less than 20). The fire burns on, because by the time the gov't agencies decided to actually attack the problem the fire was way out of control. In a couple of hundred years, it may well be at the door of the next town down the line.
There is much interesting information here about the coal region of PA. And I love the quote from the NY Times Book Review (which says it all):
"Enough bureaucratic villains to fill a Dickens Novel"
For anyone who has ever doubted the ineptness (and lack of common sense) among government bureaucrats, this one's for you! From the fire's beginning in 1962 (probably started by a dump fire) through the 1980's, there is no end to the strange and seemingly senseless decisions (or lack thereof). The hardships the people of this town endured are unbelievable. And the comments from the PA Dept. of Health...well, I felt like the AFLAC duck at times (QU-a-a-a-k???).
There are also many odd ducks in this story. Some residents denied the existence of a mine fire under the town at all, some believed the lack of government response was to get them to leave so the gov't could snatch the coal below the town (yup, another conspiracy theory), and the response of some of the government officials would be considered a stretch in a work of fiction.
Most people in the town have relocated, though there are some who still live there (less than 20). The fire burns on, because by the time the gov't agencies decided to actually attack the problem the fire was way out of control. In a couple of hundred years, it may well be at the door of the next town down the line.
There is much interesting information here about the coal region of PA. And I love the quote from the NY Times Book Review (which says it all):
"Enough bureaucratic villains to fill a Dickens Novel"
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