The Day the Earth Caved In: An American Mining Tragedy

by Joan Quigley

The Day the Earth Caved In is an unprecedented and riveting account of the nation’s worst mine fire, beginning on Valentine’s Day, 1981, when twelve-year-old Todd Domboski plunged through the earth in his grandmother’s backyard in Centralia, Pennsylvania. In astonishing detail, award-winning journalist Joan Quigley, the granddaughter of Centralia miners, ushers readers into the dramatic world of the underground blaze——from the media circus and back-room deal-making spawned in the wake of Todd’s sudden disappearance, to the inner lives of every day Centralians who fought a government that wouldn’t listen.

Drawing on interviews with key participants and exclusive new research, Quigley paints unforgettable portraits of Centralia and its residents, from Tom Larkin, the short-order cook and ex-hippie who rallied the activists, to Helen Womer, a bank teller who galvanized the opposition, denying the fire’s existence even as toxic fumes invaded her home. Here, too, we see the failures of major
political and government figures, from Centralia’s congressman, “Dapper” Dan Flood, a former actor who later resigned in the wake of corruption allegations, to James Watt, a former lawyer-lobbyist for the mining industry, who became President Reagan’s controversial interior secretary.

Like Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action, The Day the Earth Caved In is a seminal investigation of individual rights, corporate privilege, and governmental indifference to the powerless. Exposing facts in prose that reads like fiction, Quigley shows us what happens to a small community when disaster strikes, and what it means to call someplace home.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, American History, Politics, Environment, United States

237 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Katrina Jurgill Briddell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting account of the Centralia, PA mine fire, and the first to my knowledge that convincingly turns the key players and townspeople into "characters" that readers get to know throughout the book. It ends a little too abruptly -- I think another chapter might be helpful to do follow up on what has happened (long term) since most of the town relocated. If I ever end up writing about my hometown, this is where I'd pick up...

In the ethnographic / journalistic style that Quigley uses, there are bound to be numerous errors due to the vast amount of data and informant interviews that Quigley mined / conducted. Others have discussed her somewhat flawed accounts of how the fire started -- I don't really want to go there due to the immense controversy. Two errors that I caught had to do with me (since my mother, father, grandparents, sister, and myself are somewhat central "characters")... in the last chapter it said that I graduated from "Dickinson University" in "2000"... Oops - Try Dickinson College in 2001. Not central to the arguments of the book, but diminishes this Centralian's belief in the credibility of the work.

Coal region response to the book is mixed / leaning toward negative. Nearly everyone I have spoken to believed that the end product would be far different -- especially since many of the people I've spoken with were interviewed by Quigley. Far more attention was given to personal story lines, and while that is what makes the work unique I don't think the informants (whose lives became plotlines) were expecting that. And, Quigley's choice to go the more personalized route creates its own issues -- some characters' story lines were vastly simplified, glossed over, turned into generalizations, and were not developed enough to really show the unique, troubled, and nuanced situations, emotions, and beliefs of the townspeople.

Despite the errors and generalizations, it is a decent read that chronicles the town's tragedy, which was, as other authors (Hi Steve!) have discussed, more to do with politics and tensions above ground rather than the fire below ground. Since not much has been written on the subject in over 10 years, this book helps raise awareness and sheds a little additional light on the fire, the townspeople, and the government and coal companies' roles in the crisis.

[Edward Lengel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some polishing could have turned this into a more compelling story. The writing style is problematic, including disorienting shifts of time and perspective, characters that are difficult to keep track of, awkward metaphors (I didn't read a single one that really worked), and the like. But my bigger complaint is that Quigley, while obviously pouring a great deal of research into the book, spent far too much time on insignificant characterization--detailing what sort of lipstick someone put on, or what a family had for dinner--and far too little time analyzing the options available for handling the blaze, the motivations of state and federal officials, and so on. At times she seems to treat larger issues almost as an afterthought, even though it is in these areas that we can really draw lessons from the tragedy. And as a result, on many fronts her story seems to be oversimplified. To give Quigley the benefit of the doubt, however, I know from personal experience what intense pressures trade publishers--and this one in particular--put their authors under to omit detail, no matter how important, in favor of characterization, no matter how trite.

Quigley is biased, clearly, but does a relatively decent job in presenting alternate points of view. However, her overly-long discussion of her own family history--which has no relevance to the story--strikes me as self-indulgent. Plus--and this admittedly is a personal quibble--I find it hard to take a nonfiction book without an index very seriously. Perhaps it is telling that Quigley feels impelled to insist in the author's note that "This is a work of nonfiction."

[RebL · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book so, so much. It's nonfiction but spun out like the most interesting novel. Would recommend to anyone who enjoys nonfiction, reading about the inadequacies of the federal government to protect its citizens, and/or mine fires.

[A. Bowdoin Van Riper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back about the time I was born (1963), a fire started in an anthracite coal mine that ran underneath the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania. The fire was still burning twenty years later, when -- as an undergraduate geology major -- I visited Centralia on a department field trip. Twenty-five years after that I saw The Day the Earth Caved In at a library sale, and picked it up on a whim, curious about the background of the story.

Joan Quigley, who has her own family ties to Centralia, is interested less in the geology than in the story of a town that – caught between the disastrous consequences of the fire (noxious fumes, sinkholes) and the equally disastrous unwillingness of government officials at any level to take decisive action – slowly began, in the early 1980s, to come apart at the seams. She begins the story at a turning-point moment when the near death of a young boy spurred the town to action, and shows how the need to (finally) confront the worsening crisis pitted family against family, neighbor against neighbor, and all against the government and the mining companies.

There are literary echoes, here, of books like A Civil Action (in the story of a town in the throes of ecological disaster), Deer Hunting with Jesus (in the sharp, poigniant portrait of working-class life in a town on the way down), and even The Perfect Storm (in Quigley’s narration of her own reportage). I'm not sure what I was looking for when I picked up the book -- more geology, less human tragedy? -- but this wasn't it, and it went on the "done" pile (and off to someone else via PaperbackSwap.com) after about 50 pages. Your mileage, even more than usual, may vary.

The fire, by the way, is still burning.

[di · Rating 2 out of 5]

So much information, I was unable to keep all the names & people straight. I didn't see a need for the whole chapter on Quigley's forbears--especially when they really weren't key players. Quigley could have (& should have, in my opinion) kept the town's history brief & relevant to the topic. So many tangents...loooong descriptions of the capitol, people's personal lives, conversations, etc. made reading this book arduous.

On another level, I grew so frustrated with the townspeople, even more than the government! Let me get this straight...you are reading carbon monoxide levels three times the government threshold for safety in your basement...& you still rock your kids to sleep & go to bed??? The irresponsibility of using old mine as a dump, touting safety measures because they are too expensive? I realize I come from a different world--I've moved at least 40 times in my life, so I don't understand the feeling of being rooted to a place. Still...it all seemed a little crazy to me.

Having said this, I do hope to find a place in this world that I can call home...that I would fight for, & put myself out there for. I guess that's what I get from this book.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an account of a mine fire burning for decades under the town of Centralia, PA. It starts when the earth opens up and swallows a 12-year-old boy.

I've seen towns like Centralia, "coal-cracker towns" the locals called them, hard-bitten, shabby places. Besides the main story, I loved for book for explaining those towns to me, i.e. who immigrated there, people who live their whole lives in a 5-mile radius, related to everybody, thoroughly caught up in the high school football games and bowling leagues of the community.

[Cosette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could not get past odd statements that were not related to what is going in underground. Suspect there are more characters in this book than there are pages. However, what I want to know is what I could not find. This fire, that has been burning for so many years consecutively, where is it today? Is it underneath my home - 92 miles away from centralia? Is there a map detailing the area of this fire?

[Nemo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book cover said this one is another Civil Action. That is just advertising. Actually the book has a theme of how private enterprises damaging natural environment and thus hurting people's health and life, that may have the potential to become another Civil Action. But, the author doesn't know how to write a good nonfiction.

The key weakness is that there is no major character. Instead there are many who talked to the author during her interview, and thus all of them worth to be written into the book (maybe the author did this as a kind of return to these interviewees). This is a disaster to a book becuaSe readers don't know these people and don't care who's who.

Soon I lost the difference among May Lou, Catherine, Helen, Tom, to a name a few of the town residents.

I don't even know what they are debating about. And I don't want to know either. It is just a small town business and why bother with their small local tries.

Anyway in the end I figured out that one side of resident want to stay and the other siDe want to relocate to a safer place. And all the time the local officials, the governor, the guys in Senate and Congress didn't do anything to save the town. But just w@tch it burn by coal mine fire underground.

Also the author told her great great great father migrating from Ireland to US. And her family story doesn't need to be told in this book at all. If she want to prove that she has a connection to this town, well just say it in a footnote is enough. Dont force readers to know your family story in such details. It is not your autobiography.

[Nancy I · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd heard about Centralia, PA, before reading this book, but didn't really know much about it as I'm a relatively newcomer to PA. And my heart went out to Todd Domboski who could've died after falling "into a cavity as wide as his chest" and that started to bury him up to his chin in "column of hot sticky mud moistened by emissions from" Centralia's mine fire.
Quigley tried to bring the human element into this book by giving us background on a number of the characters, however, she went too far. Take Tom Larkin, for example, who as a youth, was called upon by the parish priest to do chores for him. When the priest would phone the Larkin home, he'd ask: is the fat boy there. We learn more about Tom as he grows up and did we really need to know that, while living with his grandmother, every Wednesday night he'd put on a pair of jeans or chinos and would anchor his jet-black pompadour with Brylcreem? And with others, was it necessary to tell us about some of the miner families from generations before? To me a lot of this detracted from the what the state and federal governments did or did not do to help the town and citizens of Centralia.

Granted, by the time I finished this book I learned a lot about what happened, but it could've gotten to the point and end with less "background noise."

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

AM read-aloud. This was my second read of this book. While I found it interesting if uninspired reading before, it really suffers as a read-aloud. That old advice writers should take to read their own words back to themselves...I don't think this writer did that. I am a forgiving reader (I think) but reading it aloud highlights the unnecessarily dry sentence construction, irrelevant detail and off-center storytelling focus. We powered about halfway through on the strength of the subject matter, but ultimately decided to find a good long-form magazine article on the Centralia mine fire, instead. Both kids still gave it a 3 for the subject and the "good" parts, and we were all conflicted about jumping ship, but there are soooooo many good books on our shelf still and even if we keep up this tradition through the remaining schooling years, I only have a handful of read-aloud years left. Moving on.

[Janis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book written by the granddaughter of a Centralia victim of the underground mine fire filled in many holes in my memory. I never considered my hometown, Sunbury, PA as part of the Coal Region . I was aware at a very young age that a fire existed, but I did not know of its extent until years later. Ms Quqley's account explains what most likely started the fire, the plight of the town's residents as to whether they could safely stay, the stubbornness of those who lived with carbon dioxide meters in their homes and lived in fear, the lngovernment's role in dragging its feet to Centralia's eventual death and its last remaining inhabitants. I did visit it about twenty years ago. Only the stone foundations of some of the houses remained, but the smell of rotten eggs and the plumems of gas that erupts reminds every one that the fire rages beneath. I highly recommend this book to those fans of non fiction and fiction. It is hard to believe that such a disaster ever occurred.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed, journalistic account of the anthracite mine fire tragedy at Centralia, Pennsylvania. The book focuses on the local community and the endless political frustrations that threatened and ultimately all but destroyed the town materially and socially. Joan's conscientiously researched work puts you in among neighbors on a day to day basis with clear prose that paints detailed but easy to absorb pictures of the individual events, people, buildings, and the local landscape, as they get dragged through a nightmare that some want to deny and others want to get someone to finally help them resolve. Quigley's own ancestors were among the early settlers of the town, though she did not grow up there. Her personal reflections on the path she took writing this book, and uncovering her heritage, add to the story's authenticity.

[Douglas Greenshields · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a meticulous and engrossing chronicle centering on the residents of a town who lived above a twenty-year mine fire that threatened to suffocate or consume them yet, due to restrictions economic, familial, and a human darkness that has plagued the town since its inception, refused to move until national media and federal government aligned to present a plan, that of relocation and demolition. The story always places humans and their imperfections first, and the tale is stranger than fiction. It conveys what feels like a complete understanding of the birth, life and managed death of a Pennsylvania mining town where thriving always necessarily had to coexist with tragedy. Having recently visited what remains of Centralia, I feel this book has brought that ghost town back to life.

[Naughton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having grown up outside of Scranton in the 70's and 80's, I remember snippets of news stories about the Centralia mine fires. Both of my grandfathers worked for the mines, so much of the history described in the book is my history. Northeastern Pennsylvania is a beautiful place that hides so much devastation underneath from the fires to the 98 Superfund sites. This book does a great job of portraying both the history of the area as well as national state and local politics that contributed to the tragedy.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scary but with the department of the interior being gutted these days and funding being cut for the EPA, this story could have had a much scarier ending had it happened now.
As it is, with all the anthracite in the region and those abandoned mines all over Pennsylvania, the fires will probably burn for a century.
The book could have used a good editor but it was a powerful story and I did get pulled in despite some of the townspeople (and because of a few of them!)
What a sad and scary story.

[Jill Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent account of a multifaceted topic through the lenses of the human beings whose emotions guide or blind their fateful decisions. Meticulous researched yet reads like a detective novel not a dry, data-filled report. Interspersed are the author’s personal family connections to coal country.
Recommend reading slowly, digesting and reviewing before proceed as there’s a lot of information amidst the beautiful descriptions and fleshed out characters.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The tragic story of Centralia, Pennsylvania where a mine fire began in 1962 in a dump on the outskirts of town. Not extinguished, it proceeded to burn into the anthracite coal veins left underground. This is a story of government indifference (Federal and state); petty jealousies and the need to preserve "home" within residents of Centralia; the danger to human life ignored.

[Dorian Pacheco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read! Lots of background on the Centralia fire and insight into the town that lived with and around it. There are a lot of characters in the story and it gets difficult to keep track of who's who at times. An index of characters with a brief description and their relation to others would be a helpful addition.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started off good but then the author was just talking about her family members and she went off subject of what the book is about so I gave up.

If you want to read a better book about Centralia I recommend reading "Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy Of The Centralia Mine Fire" by David DeKok instead.

[Jon Stanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this after visiting Centralia a few years back. If you're interested in stories of how humans can destroy the environment to the point of abandonment, this is a good book to check out.

[Neal Holtschulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tragic tale, well-written.

[Penelope Przekop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great true story!

[Bob Colwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first heard about Centralia after reading Bill Bryson's masterpiece 'A Walk in the Woods'...the thought of an entire city in northeast Pennsylvania being evacuated due to an anthracite fire underneath the town fascinated me. The main focus of 'The Day the Earth Caved In' is the inner-town politics surrounding the evacuation in 1983...this makes sense due to the fact that Ms. Quigley has a personal connection to Centralia since her grandmother is interred at the cemetery at the former St. Ignatius church there. The book was interesting, but I was drawn to the story mainly for the bookend concepts...how the fire started (town dump in the 1960's) and what has become of the town and its former residents since evacuation...since this comprised only about 20% of the overall book, I finished it feeling that I missed something. Sure, it was great to learn about the political upheaval caused by warring factions in the town and how that spilled over from ineptitude caused by defrocked Secretary of the Interior James Watts, but it seemed to occupy too much of the book. Regardless, it is an interesting read for people who want to learn more about:

1) small-town politics in the face of disaster
2) anthracite fire and its potential to ravage entire areas if left unchecked
3) real-world failings caused by government bureaucracy
4) the realities of living in "coal country" and the sacrifices it sometimes requires

[Deleted · Rating 4 out of 5]

This may not be the best book on the terrible fate of Centralia PA. And many have faulted Quigley for interjecting her own family history here, but I do not -- because history is what this book is about, not the dry, dusty, impersonal kind but, as Quigley describes it in her opening pages, "the irreplaceable bond of home."

There are only nine people still living in Centralia -- downtown is gone as are most of the homes. The mine fire still burns and may burn for another century. This is as much a story of how the government failed (and. indeed, continues to fail) everyday Americans, of their misplaced trust and hope, as it is the story of the people who called Centralia home (and spiritually still do).

A compelling book for all its faults, one that brought to mind something from Joan Didion: "who will remember me as I was, who will know what happens to me now, where will I be from." Those questions haunt us all, and they provide the real backbone of Quigley's account.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really interesting, and it's hard to imagine the sheer audacity of the politicians who passed the buck to each other because the cost of containment was so high.

It appears that the Federal Government believed that the state should pay the bulk of the money, while the state thought the opposite. In the meantime, the residents whose lives were being affected daily by the toxic gasses lacked the funds (or the desire, in some cases) to move to a safer area. Some residents even claimed that it was never a question of who should pay, but rather who all was involved in the conspiracy to get everyone out of the town so the coal barons could strip mine the city for the anthracite coal underneath.

Yet, for about 47 years it has burned, and experts have no idea how long it will continue.

Amazing.

[Larry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish there were half-stars available, I'd give this a 2.5.

Like some of the other reviewers of this book, I found the section with the Quigley Family history to be a bit unnecessary. I see what the author is trying to do, framing the coal mining history in Pennsylvania by using her family history. I just think the background story could have been delivered without that part.

This was a decent/good book, but one that frankly at times I just wanted to be finished. Although the background of various families is good to present in some instances, it felt like I was being taken by the hand and walked door to door being introduced to everyone. Tedious.

A potentially much better book though and enough for me to look for more background on the story of Centralia.

[Kelley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is intriguing, but the writer's style is convoluted and distracting. I agree with other readers who disliked her lengthy and only obscurely related family history. She should have focused more attention on clearly laying out the events and failed attempts to remedy this horrible situation. Also, her adamant stance on "how the mine fire began" seems stubborn and naive since it's based solely on rumors and seems to completely ignore the Town Council's directive to the Fire Department. Other sources, the minutes of their meeting, and the payments made to the firemen, clearly demonstrate approval and intent for the fire department to burn the contents of dump on Sunday. Strange coincidence.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A companion volume to DeKok's Fire Underground, Quigley does a better job examining some of the individuals who lived through the worst parts of the Centralia mine fire. I skimmed a lot of this book, where she examines her family history in the area, but paid closer attention to her profiles of individuals and their motivations for leaving Centralia, staying in Centralia, or becoming an advocate for Centralia. It helped me understand the human side of this better, but I still don't understand why someone would choose to stay with high risk to their personal health, especially once the cost barrier of moving was removed through the federal gov't relocation program.

[Kristin-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history of the Centralia, Pennsylvania mine fire (most famous as the location inspiration for the Silent Hill games). Underwhelming, unfortunately - the history was interesting and tragic, but the writeup was just "okay." One of my biggest complaints is that the book simply stopped once efforts to put out the fire were abandoned and the town was evacuated; I wanted some kind of epilogue at least - what's the town like now? How does this tragedy and massive fuckup influence policy-making today? Did the kids who grew up in carbon monoxide filled homes wind up with tons of freaky health issues, or are they more or less fine now that they're out of there? etc.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tries to do a few things, and almost succeeds at a few of them. I could have done without so much of the author's personal family history. There are lots of books on Irish immigration, and if I had wanted to read about them I would have chosen one of those books. But by the second half this book really settles into what I wanted: a "David & Goliath" story of Centralia, a town I had heard lots of stories about but never really know the truth. It also keeps focus and, in light of my early complaint, usually avoids the pitfall of just taking on too much stuff.