(A motorist in 2004 drives among the smoldering remains of land near Route 61 in Centralia, Pa. AP file photo) Posted on 05/26/2012 9:18:07 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
After 50 years, fire still burns under Pa. town
(A motorist in 2004 drives among the smoldering remains of land near Route 61 in Centralia, Pa. AP file photo)
Fifty years ago Sunday, a fire at the town dump ignited an exposed coal seam, setting off a chain of events that eventually led to the demolition of nearly every building in Centralia — a whole community of 1,400 simply gone.
All these decades later, the Centralia fire still burns. It also maintains its grip on the popular imagination, drawing visitors from around the world who come to gawk at twisted, buckled Route 61, at the sulfurous steam rising intermittently from ground that's warm to the touch, at the empty, lonely streets where nature has reclaimed what coal-industry money once built.
It's a macabre story that has long provided fodder for books, movies and plays — the latest one debuting in March at a theater in New York.
Yet to the handful of residents who still occupy Centralia, who keep their houses tidy and their lawns mowed, this borough in the mountains of northeast Pennsylvania is no sideshow attraction. It's home, and they'd like to keep it that way.
"That's all anybody wanted from day one," said Tom Hynoski, who's among the plaintiffs in a federal civil rights lawsuit aimed at blocking the state of Pennsylvania from evicting them.
Centralia was already a coal-mining town in decline when the fire department set the town's landfill ablaze on May 27, 1962, in an ill-fated attempt to tidy up for Memorial Day.
The fire wound up igniting the coal outcropping and, through the years, spread to the vast network of mines beneath homes and businesses, threatening residents with poisonous gases and dangerous sinkholes.
After a contentious battle about the future of the town, the side that wanted to evacuate won out. By the end of the 1980s, more than 1,000 people had moved and 500 structures demolished under a $42 million federal relocation program.
But some holdouts refused to go — even after their houses were seized through eminent domain in the early 1990s. They said the fire posed little danger to their part of town, accused government officials and mining companies of a plot to grab the rights to billions of dollars' worth of anthracite coal, and vowed to stay put.
After years of letting them be, state officials decided a few years ago to take possession of the homes. The state Department of Community and Economic Development said Friday it's in negotiations with one of the five remaining homeowners; the others are continuing to resist, pleading their case in federal court.
Residents say the state has better things to spend its money on. A handwritten sign along the road blasts Gov. Tom Corbett, the latest chief executive to inherit a mess that goes back decades.
"You and your staff are making budget cuts everywhere," the sign says. "How can you allow (the state) to waste money trying to force these residents out of their homes? These people want to pay their taxes and be left alone and live where they choose!"
Whether it's safe to live there is subject to debate.
Tim Altares, a geologist with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said that while temperatures in monitoring boreholes are down — possibly indicating the fire has followed the coal seam deeper underground — the blaze still poses a threat because it has the potential to open up new paths for deadly gases to reach the remaining homes.
"It's very difficult to quantify the threat, but the major threat would be infiltration of the fire gases into the confined space of a residential living area. That was true from the very beginning, and will remain true even after the fire moves out of the area," Alteres said.
Nonsense, say residents who point out they've lived for decades without incident.
Carl Womer, 88, whose late wife, Helen, was the leader of a faction that fiercely resisted the government buyout, disagrees the fire poses any threat.
"What mine fire?" Womer asked dismissively as he hosed down his front porch, preparing, he said, for a Memorial Day picnic. "If you go up and see a fire, you come back and tell me."
Author and journalist David DeKok, who's been writing about Centralia for more than 30 years, said that while he believes Womer's house is too close to the fire to safely live there, Hynoski and his neighbors are far enough away.
"I don't think there's any great public safety problem in letting those people stay there," said DeKok, author of "Fire Underground," a book on the town.
Many former residents, meanwhile, prefer to talk about the good times, their nostalgia taking on a decidedly golden hue.
"I loved it. I always liked Centralia from the time I was old enough to understand what it was," said Mary Chapman, 72, who left in 1986 but returns once a month to the social club at the Centralia fire company.
"If you came out of your house and you couldn't get your car started, the neighbor would come out and he'd help you. You didn't even have to ask," Chapman continued. "Of course the neighbors knew your business, but they also were there to help you, too."
Most people would be surprised just how many there are, back in the woods, nowhere near a modern road. Southern frontier era families had family graveyards, and those who haven’t died out or moved on still do, those are the three I try to help maintain, they belong to my own family.
Wandering the woods, if you come upon a patch of periwinkle, chances are there’s an old family cemetery. Many are marked with fieldstone set on end. They usually got “lost” due to the Civil War and the aftermath of it, a lot of poverty and dislocation.
Related op-ed posted to FR last year ... this has some great background into the comedy of errors that occurred by both governments and environmental activists after the fire began in 1962.
“Centralia is a metaphor showcasing government failure while exposing environmental activists’ true agenda.
Government’s inability to solve the problem has extended the crisis and escalated the costs. Their best effort is to put up a few warning signs and hope it goes away.
Silence is also deafening from the Green crowd. When confronted with a real environmental disaster their inaction is morally repugnant. Can’t let toxic fumes or scorched earth stop them from their true purpose, fundraising!”
The Best-ever Symbol of Government Incompetence?
American Thinker ^ | May 08, 2011 | Alan M Aszkler
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2716981/posts
If I remember correctly, several early attempts were made to put the fire out with no effect whatsoever. There are a lot of air passages in coal seams as well as a limitless supply of methane and other volatile gases to keep it going.
The air is limited and if they ever hit a wide fissure that can suppply lots of air the fires will become quite large as they are now smoldering due to lack of oxygen.
Are the mine fires near Scranton and Pittston still burning? It has been a while since I have heard an update.
5.56mm
Our ggg grandfather who was a deacon there must be rolling in his grave out there behind the church if he knows that so many of his descendants have done backslid on him!
Since you maintain a couple of cemeteries, what's the best way to repair a marble stone that has broken? I've seen everything from cement to bathtub caulk to roofing tar . . . .
I don’t know about the Scranton and Pittston mines... I do find your last name intriguing.. Any relation to Jack?!!
I was curious if you would notice. Yes, my uncle.
5.56mm
If it's a really old, slender slab of marble I'd suggest either tile grout tinted to match or some variety of superglue/gorilla glue sealed with clear caulk after it dries. Caulk isn't too good long term if very much will be exposed to the elements as far as appearance, but it does keep those elements out of the crack, an important consideration if freezing is a concern.
Heavier stuff requires heavier stuff. I've seen cement. I've seen cast iron rods used sort of like dowels, an older professional repair I suspect.
So, the answer is “it depends,” lol. What you're able to work with for reliably adhering it into place, plus a sealant that sits well aesthetically, if your adhesive, cement or what have you isn't effectively sealing the repair in and of itself.
At least they have free Centralia heating there.
After replying I realized that it had never really dawned upon me, that there are a lot of ancestry groups and church committees charged with the same task,and that there would be a consensus of sorts reached over the past decade or two regarding how to go about this.
Here’s a very thorough PDF off of Ancestry.com:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncomgs/tombstone.pdf
I was pretty close with my ad hoc advice, but they’re recommending a very specific “knife grade” epoxy, it hardens and fills in the damage, especially good for mower damaged corners and such.
Be very careful with Roundup around marble, too. It eats it over time.
I heard the fire was started by local townspeople, probably kids, who used to dump their trash in a pit.
Thanks DogByte6RER. Geothermal energy ping. ;’)
Polished hardwood floors, in my opinion, are much “warmer” than wall to wall carpeting. You may vacuum the rugs regularly but after a while, you just don’t know what gets lodged in those carpet fibers. At least with a hardwood floor, you can scrub it clean and is shines!
Bump to the top for an old post, still relevant since it is still burning .
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