{"id":172,"date":"2025-12-13T20:01:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T20:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disasters.astanton.org\/?page_id=172"},"modified":"2025-12-13T21:01:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T21:01:28","slug":"final-essay","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/disasters.astanton.org\/?page_id=172","title":{"rendered":"Final Essay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Centralia: Disaster Underground 
Since 1962, the small town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, has been the site of one of America\u2019s most unique fires. Centralia was a former mining town that contained a labyrinth of underground coal mines. These mines created conditions for a fire that had become impossible to fight. The disaster started from a routine trash burn that accidentally spread into the mine. This event led to a cascade of misfortune for the town and ultimately caused it to be abandoned. The circumstances surrounding the fire show that its impact was not limited to a single mistake, but to a series of preventable decisions made by both the government and the citizens. The Centralia mine fire represents more than just an abandoned town; it warns us about the dangers of negligence, the long-term consequences of a fire's environmental damage, and the profound effects on the lives of those who once lived there.
The origin of this town is like many others in the Appalachian region of Pennsylvania. The Appalachian Mountains are home to some of the highest quality coal deposits in the world. Many people wanted to profit from it, so they created mining towns. There were many mining towns in Pennsylvania and Centralia began like any other. It was founded by the Locust Mountain Coal and Iron Company  which utilized the coal for profit, thus creating jobs.
The coal under Centralia is known as anthracite, and there was an abundance of it. According to James Hower et al., Pennsylvania is home to some of America\u2019s largest anthracite coal deposits.  Anthracite is a high-quality coal that was sought after by many to be used for heating and steel production. Once Centralia was established in the mid-1800s, it thrived as a coal mining town; reaching a population of 2761 in 1880.  But over time, the anthracite coal industry started declining, and so did Centralia\u2019s population.
The Great Depression was a catalyst for the industry's decline due to the decreased consumer demand and job loss. The anthracite industry did have a momentary comeback to power machines in World War II, but there was ultimately not enough demand. Cheaper resources such as oil and natural gas were becoming available as alternate fuels and started outcompeting coal in the 1920s. Centralia was a small town containing only about two thousand residents by 1950.  Over time, they had to drastically limit mining because it was no longer economically profitable. 
The mines in Centralia run beneath the entirety of the 153-acre town and its surrounding area. Even though the mines had been abandoned, some parts were still being put to good use. The town needed a legal place to put its trash. The Centralia Council decided to place a landfill at one of the abandoned strip mine pits. Mine pits are sections of land that have been dug out for coal mining. This particular mine pit had holes leading to underground parts of the mine.  Due to the holes, and the history of mine fires in Pennsylvania, the holes needed to be filled, and the dump had to be inspected regularly. The inspector, George Segartus, gave the all-clear once he was informed that the holes were filled, and the trash dump was created. 
On May 7, 1962, the Centralia Council met to discuss what they were going to do with the trash for the upcoming Memorial Day Celebration. The landfill was located near a cemetery that many people usually visited. The council did not want foul-smelling garbage to ruin someone's visit to a family member. Despite the fact that Pennsylvania had a law against trash fires, the council agreed to burn the dump anyway.  It was the easiest way to clear the landfill, and they had burned other landfills previously, so why would this one cause a problem?
May 27, 1962, the day before Memorial Day, the Centralia fire department started a controlled burn to the trash dump. Once they decided enough trash had been burned, the firefighters dumped water on the trash until no more flames were seen. Then two days later, Centralia citizen George Jones noticed flames and smoke coming from the dump, so he alerted the fire department. According to David DeKok, an investigative reporter. fireman, Charles Micheal recalls that he and two other firefighters were pouring water on the dump until almost two in the morning. The fire from this routine, controlled burn is believed to have spread into the mines and continued to burn. Others think that it came from a previous trash burn in the area. Even though it cannot be confirmed, the 1962 landfill fire is widely accepted as the cause of Centralia's mine fire. Regardless of how the fire started, it still had detrimental effects on the town. 
One of the leading issues of the fire was its environmental impact. The anthracite underneath has the highest carbon content of any coal in the world, which is why it is so high quality. Because of that quality, anthracite releases large amounts of heat and gas. The two primary gases released from anthracite burning are carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. Both gases are dangerous in excess amounts, and the fire has been releasing them nonstop since it started burning.  
The biggest threat to the citizens in Centralia was exposure to excess amounts of carbon monoxide within the town. The fire\u2019s heat created fissures and cracks in the ground, which allowed the gas to seep into people's homes. The houses were enclosed spaces, so the toxic gas accumulated in them. It should be emphasized that, as an odorless, colorless gas, carbon monoxide\u2019s presence is even more worrying because no one would know if it was there unless they had carbon monoxide detectors. The Bureau of Mines, a federal government agency, installed carbon monoxide detectors in some homes between 1970 and 1980 to alert residents of high carbon monoxide levels.  However, there were not enough funds to provide all residents with one, so people without them were more at risk of succumbing to dangerous levels of carbon monoxide.
When the mines were still in use, wooden supports were put up to prevent cave-ins. But once the fire started, those supports and the overall structure of the ground began to become unstable. This lack of structure caused the formation of sinkholes that proved to be very dangerous. The most notable incident involved a sinkhole that almost killed a boy. It was Valentine\u2019s Day 1981 when twelve-year-old Todd Domboski was outside and noticed smoke coming from the ground. When he investigated, the ground beneath him suddenly disappeared and he was struggling for his life. Luckily a friend saved him; \"Todd would have died from asphyxiation [from carbon monoxide], had he been trapped in the hole for very many minutes.\u201d  This event sparked a great deal of worry for other residents. They did not want something like this to happen again, but without the state or federal government\u2019s help there was nothing they could do. 
The Bureau of Mines suggested many ideas for how to put out the fire. One method they came up with was to dump a mixture of sand, water, and gravel into the mines. They drilled boreholes that reached down to the mine, so they could pour the mixture down in hopes that it would smother the flames. Unfortunately, the boreholes made the situation worse because the fire burned through the new paths created and released more toxic gas into the town. 
Even though there were many attempts to put out the fire, the biggest problem was getting funds to do so. Centralia was a small town; it had just over one thousand people by the time of the fire,  which made it hard to get enough money for the job. In fact, Robert Belfanti Jr., a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, stated in an interview that \u201cone of the projects was only fifty or sixty thousand dollars short of being able to completely put out the fire and no one could come up with the funds.\u201d  If the town had been bigger and had more residents, then the fire likely could have been put out, and people would still live there today.
Centralia's residents were scared because they did not know what effects the fire\u2019s gases would have on them. In a PBS interview, an unnamed resident states, \u201cI live here all alone and naturally I'm scared, because as I say, when you go to bed at night, you don't know whether you're getting up the next morning.\u201d  Throughout the documentary many citizens also expressed concerns that the local and state governments were not helping as much as they could have. Project funding, cooperation, and the government's overall disinterest in helping were all difficulties faced regarding outside help. In Karen Ivory\u2019s book about Pennsylvania disasters, she notes that \u201cBy late 1981, the U.S. office of surface mining announced, \u2018we have no plans to fight the fire any further.\u2019 James Watt, the U.S. Secretary of the interior said, \u2018Our experts believe it will burn itself out. There is not a threat to health and safety.\u2019\u201d  While federal, state, and local agencies all helped with the problem, they still did things like delaying response efforts and pushing aside concerns. Disasters like the one in Centralia were unique, and it took time to coordinate possible solutions. The fire could have easily been stopped if the government had been a little more attentive.
\tDespite so many negative consequences of the fire, Centralia\u2019s story did leave some unexpected and positive impacts. When tourists heard about the abandoned ghost town in Pennsylvania, many wanted to visit. The most popular area is a one-mile stretch of road south of the town, off route 61. Heat from the fire caused cracks in the road which made it dangerous to drive on. In 1993, the road was officially closed to traffic, but it did not stop tourists from visiting. People started to spray paint the road as a form of artistic expression. Some memorialized Centralia; others just wrote their name or did a simple drawing. The road was eventually filled with designs and was given the nickname \u201cGraffiti Highway.\u201d In 2020, the mining company that owned the land, Pagnotti Enterprises, covered the road in dirt mounds. It now has a \u201cNo Trespassing\u201d sign and is inaccessible to the public. The reason behind the closure was mainly due to liability concerns and excessive litter.  The road is still visible on Google Maps however, because a man named Larry Strange documented it in 2018.
Graffiti Highway is not the only unexpected outcome of the disaster. Centralia\u2019s uniqueness also sparked interest for some to make their own adaptation of the town through movies, games, and stories. The popular movie Silent Hill, made in 2006, got its inspiration from Centralia.  The story of Silent Hill follows a similar story to Centralia because there is a coal fire burning underground in the movie as well. The key difference is that Silent Hill utilizes the eerie feeling of the town, and it is heavily based on horror. The Centralia disaster has had a positive cultural significance to some; however, it is still important to remember that this was no fictional story. It was a real event that impacted the lives of hundreds of people. 
Today, Centralia is still home to four residents, but once they die or leave, the State of Pennsylvania will own their properties, just like it owns the rest of Centralia.  According to Kevin Krajic, an author for National Geographic, \u201cThe conflagration may burn for another 250 years, along an eight-mile stretch encompassing 3,700 acres, before it runs out of the coal that fuels it.\u201d  This means that no one will be able to live there for a long time. The fire was a devastating blow to Centralia's residents. They had to abandon the homes of their grandparents who started the town. This loss shows how much a community can be affected when environmental dangers are ignored. Centralia is more than an abandoned mining town; it is a reminder of how important it is to deal with a fire problem and how one small action can change a place forever.





Bibliography


Alexander, Kathy. Centralia Pennsylvania \u2013 A Lost Town, Legends of America, updated February 2024. https:\/\/www.legendsofamerica.com\/centralia-pennsylvania\/.

Data Commons. \u201cCentralia,\u201d Accessed December 12, 2025. https:\/\/datacommons.org\/place\/geoId\/4212312.

DeKok, David. Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire. Globe Pequot Press, 2010.
Hower, James C, Cortland F Eble, Na Wang, and Shifeng Dai. \u201cDistribution of Rare Earth Elements and Other Critical Elements in Beneficiated Pennsylvania Anthracites.\u201d 2021. https:\/\/doi-org.\/10.1016\/j.fuel.2021.121400.
Ivory, Karen. \u201cUnderground Centralia Fires\u201d in Pennsylvania Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival, Globe Pequot Press, 2015.
Krajick, Kevin. \u201cFire in the Hole.\u201d Smithsonian Magazine, May 2005. https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/fire-in-the-hole-77895126\/. 
Knutson Julie, \u201cThe End of Centralia\u2019s Abandoned, Colorful, Anarchic \u2018Graffiti Highway,\u2019\u201d Atlas Obscura, September 14, 2020. https:\/\/www.atlasobscura.com\/articles\/centralia-graffiti-highway-buried.
Mussari, Tony. \u201cCentralia Fire \u2014 PBS (1982).\u201d Documentary video, 1982. Posted September 25, 2015, by YorkVid. YouTube, 28:20. www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ow4UERykRbg. 

Problems in the Control of the Centralia Mine Fire: A Report by the Bureau of Mines, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1980. https:\/\/babel.hathitrust.org\/cgi\/pt?id=pst.000030384996&seq=7.

Quigley, Joan. The Day The Earth Caved In: An American Mining Tragedy. Random House Trade Paperback, 2009.  





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