Fire Underground: Free Lecture at HU on The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire

Nov. 23, 2010 - PRLog -- The lesson of ignoring the forces of nature in our endless quest for energy was driven home this summer when one of BP's undersea oil wells blew out and fouled the Gulf of Mexico and its marine life with crude oil. It was also the lesson not so long ago in Pennsylvania when a fire got started in abandoned coal mines under Centralia and ultimately destroyed the small town, scattering its thousand people to the winds.

Author David DeKok of Harrisburg knows the Centralia story well. His book, Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire, tells the history of the Centralia mine fire, how it started, why it lasted so long, and the impact it had on the people of Centralia. He will talk about the Centralia mine fire at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology on Wednesday, Jan. 26, at 11 a.m.

"I couldn't help but notice the parallels between the two disasters this summer," DeKok said. "The initial confusion, the scramble to figure out a way to plug the well, even the use of booms to contain the spread of the oil all had close parallels in the Centralia story. Unlike Centralia, government recognized the danger from the first day. And unlike Centralia, where the fire still burns, BP was eventually able to plug the well."

An award-winning journalist, DeKok also authored the book, Unseen Danger: A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia Mine Fire. In the books, DeKok tells the story of how the modern-day mine disaster has turned a Pennsylvania community into a ghost town.

The story (www.centraliaminefire.com) reads like something out of a Hollywood movie.  Centralia was a pleasant community of about 1,435 souls in 1962. On May 27 of that year, with the best of intentions, a fire was set in Centralia’s garbage dump by firemen hired by the borough council. They had always done this, because the dump had always been next to one cemetery or another, and with Memorial Day and many grave visits approaching, they wanted to get rid of the offending odors as best they could. The firemen piled the trash in one corner of the pit, set it afire and later washed down the smoldering ashes with fire hoses. But this year it went horribly wrong and the fire found its way through a hole in the pit into the vast, black labyrinth of abandoned coal mines that lay beneath Centralia. The borough council tried desperately to put out the underground fire, but after a few days it was beyond their reach.

Over the next two decades, the people of Centralia watched as repeated state and federal efforts to stop the fire failed either for lack of sufficient funding or political clout. In 1979, after one particularly ill-conceived engineering project, the fire broke through an underground barrier installed in earlier years and moved under the town itself, sending dangerous gases into one home after another and causing the ground itself to collapse.

The federal government announced in 1983 that it would simply cost too much and destroy too much of Centralia to put out the fire. Congress then appropriated $42 million to relocate anyone who wanted to leave and the fire was allowed to burn. Today, fewer than 20 people remain and much of the town has been demolished.

“Centralia and its mine fire symbolize the folly of the notion that man can abuse the environment without consequence and there are parallels between this and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Both were predictable outcomes of our thirst for energy. Both were caused by violations of law and common sense, aggravated by hamhanded responses and bad luck. And the Deepwater Horizon oil catastrophe, like the Centralia mine fire, seems destined to ruin the lives of many people who had nothing to do with the initial accident,” says DeKok.  

The author also plans to talk some about the techniques he uses to research science stories, both on the Centralia book and his newest book, The Epidemic, which will be coming out in February 2011. The Epidemic is about a typhoid epidemic in Ithaca, N.Y., that killed 85 people, including 29 Cornell University students.

The event is free. RSVP online at http://www.harrisburgu.edu/news/event-registration.php or via email at CONNECT@HarrisburgU.edu

Harrisburg University is located at 326 Market Street in Harrisburg.  Parking is available in the Harrisburg University parking garage accessible via Fourth Street. Cost for parking in the garage is $4.00 for 0-2 hours.  Kiosk for parking accepts cash only.  More information on parking rates and directions to the University are found online at http://www.harrisburgu.net/campuslife/directions.php#parking

Founded in 2001 to address Central Pennsylvania’s need for increased opportunities for study leading to careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, Harrisburg University is an innovative and ambitious private institution that produces graduates who provide increased competence and capacity in science and technology disciplines to Pennsylvania and the nation. Harrisburg University ensures institutional access for underrepresented students and links learning and research to practical outcomes. As a private University serving the public good, Harrisburg University remains the only STEM-focused comprehensive university located between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

For more information on the University's demand-driven undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs in applied science and technology fields, call 717.901.5146 or email Connect@HarrisburgU.edu.

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Established in 2001 to address Central Pennsylvania’s need for increased opportunities for study leading to careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, Harrisburg University is an innovative and ambitious private institution.