Government or official record
Centralia Mine Fire
Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Where this source supports the record
Each entry separates the article’s editorial relevance note from its exact, section-level claims. A bibliography link without a direct claim is labeled plainly.
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Engineering failures · May 1962Open article references →
The Centralia Mine Fire
Centralia underground mine-fire and former town area · United States
Why editors use it hereGeological account of mine layout, combustion, attempted control, and uncertainty.
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Quick read
A fire entered abandoned anthracite workings beneath Centralia in 1962 and resisted decades of containment attempts.
Reviewed 26 July 2026 -
Trigger and conditions
The prevailing reconstruction holds that a deliberately set landfill fire in May 1962 was not fully extinguished and reached a coal seam through an opening.
Reviewed 26 July 2026 -
Uncertainty
The 1962 landfill explanation is official and well supported but challenged by theories of an older mine fire.
Reviewed 26 July 2026 -
Why it matters
Centralia is slow disaster: no single explosion defines it, and uncertainty, fragmented ownership, sunk costs, and political distrust accumulated over decades.
Reviewed 26 July 2026
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Quick read