Government or official record
Centralia Mine Fire
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
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 hereOfficial status, history, relocation, hazards, and monitoring information.
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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