Abstract

The beginning of the end, it is generally agreed, was in 1962 (“Centralia, Pennsylvania: Truth is Stranger than Fiction,” 2009). Someone burned trash in the pit of an abandoned strip mine in Centralia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was illegal; it was unethical; but people do this kind of thing all the time. An exposed vein of coal caught fire. The fire was doused with water and town officials thought the fire was extinguished. But it wasn’t, and the fire erupted again, unexpectedly, in the same pit just a few days later. More water was applied and town officials thought that was the end of it. But again, it wasn’t.