Editing Centralia, Pennsylvania (section)

====Triggers====
Analysts disagree about the specific cause of the Centralia fire. David Dekok, author of ''Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire'', concluded that it started with an attempt to clean up the town landfill. In May 1962, the Centralia Borough Council hired five members of the volunteer fire company to clean up the town landfill, located in an abandoned [[surface mining|strip-mine pit]] next to the [[Independent Order of Odd Fellows|Odd Fellows]] Cemetery just outside the borough limits. This had been done prior to [[Memorial Day]] in previous years, when the landfill was in a different location.

On May 27, 1962, the firefighters, as they had in the past, set the dump on fire and let it burn for some time. Unlike in previous years, however, the fire was not fully extinguished. An unsealed opening in the pit allowed the fire to enter the labyrinth of abandoned coal mines beneath Centralia.<ref>David Dekok, ''Unseen Danger'' and successor edition, ''Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire''</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2017}}

By contrast, other sources<ref>{{cite web|last=Quigley|first=Joan|title=''The Day the Earth Caved In'' |url=http://www.thedaytheearthcavedin.com/|access-date=March 13, 2020|page=8|format=www|year=2007}}</ref> claim that the fire had started the previous day, when a trash hauler dumped hot ash or coal discarded from coal burners into the open trash pit. The author of ''The Day the Earth Caved In'' noted that borough council minutes from June 4, 1962, referred to two fires at the dump and that five firefighters had submitted bills for "fighting the fire at the landfill area." The borough, by law, was responsible for installing a fire-resistant clay barrier between each layer of the landfill,<ref>{{cite web|title=Abandoned Mines in Pennsylvania|url=http://www.mbm-law.net/newsletter-articles/subsidence-abandoned-mines-in-pennsylvania/1224/|website=Maiello, Brungo & Maiello|date=February 9, 2007|access-date=December 15, 2015}}</ref> but fell behind schedule, leaving the barrier incomplete. This allowed the hot coals to penetrate the coal seam underneath the pit and start the subsequent subterranean fire.<ref name="Quigley">{{cite book |last=Quigley |first=Joan |title=The Day the Earth Caved In: An American Mining Tragedy |location=New York |publisher=Random House |year=2007 |url=https://archive.org/details/dayearthcavedina00quig |isbn=978-1-4000-6180-8 |url-access=registration }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Quigley |first=Joan |title=Chapter Notes to ''The Day the Earth Caved In'' |url=http://www.thedaytheearthcavedin.com/chapter_notes_2007.doc |access-date=March 13, 2012 |page=8 |format=DOC |year=2007}}</ref>

Another theory proposes that the Bast Colliery fire of 1932 was never fully extinguished, and that fire reached the landfill area by 1962; however, a miner named Frank Jurgill Sr. disputes that theory. Jurgill claims he operated a bootleg mine with his brother near the landfill from 1960 to 1962. If the Bast Colliery fire had not been extinguished, the brothers would likely have been overcome or killed by the noxious gases via many interconnected tunnels in the area.<ref name=":0"/>