Title: A tale of two mine fires: Centralia and Tresckow, PA

Authors: Anne Mercuri; Stephen R. Couch; Cynthia Drazenovich

Addresses: The Pennsylvania State University, The Schuylkill Campus, 200 University Drive Schuylkill Haven, PA 17972 570-617-2788, USA ' Sociology The Pennsylvania State University, The Schuylkill Campus, 200 University Drive Schuylkill Haven, PA 17972 570-449-5023, USA ' The Pennsylvania State University, The Schuylkill Campus, 200 University Drive Schuylkill Haven, PA 17972 570-385-6094, USA

Abstract: In 1962, a mine fire was discovered burning just outside the borough of Centralia, PA. During the early 1980s, this working-class coal mining community experienced an astounding level of intra-community social conflict over what to do about the mine fire. The tale of the mine fire at Tresckow, PA began in 2012. Located a mere 25 miles away from Centralia, Tresckow is demographically similar in size and class to Centralia at the start of its mine fire. Both towns boasted about 1,000 residents of working-class coal mining heritage. Initially causing similar concern as Centralia, the fire at Tresckow was extinguished without the disastrous social breakdown that occurred in Centralia. The paper suggests that the main factors accounting for the differences in response include physical differences between the fires, the governments' responses, and the fact that there was corporate involvement in the latter case.

Keywords: environmental sociology; psychosocial responses; chronic technological disasters; mine fire; eco-symbolic perspective; intra-community social conflict; environmental disasters: Centralia and Tresckow; PA.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2021.121689

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2021 Vol.21 No.3/4, pp.173 - 191

Published online: 23 Mar 2022 *

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