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Usually ships in 1 business days | | | The Day the Earth Caved In is an unprecedented and riveting account of the nation’s worst mine fire, beginning on Valentine’s Day, 1981, when twelve-year-old Todd Domboski plunged through the earth in his grandmother’s backyard in Centralia, Pennsylvania. In astonishing detail, award-winning journalist Joan Quigley, the granddaughter of Centralia miners, ushers readers into the dramatic world of the underground blaze——from the media circus and back-room deal-making spawned in the wake of Todd’s sudden disappearance, to the inner lives of every day Centralians who fought a government that wouldn’t listen.
Drawing on interviews with key participants and exclusive new research, Quigley paints unforgettable portraits of Centralia and its residents, from Tom Larkin, the short-order cook and ex-hippie who rallied the activists, to Helen Womer, a bank teller who galvanized the opposition, denying the fire’s existence even as toxic fumes invaded her home. Here, too, we see the failures of major
political and government figures, from Centralia’s congressman, “Dapper” Dan Flood, a former actor who later resigned in the wake of corruption allegations, to James Watt, a former lawyer-lobbyist for the mining industry, who became President Reagan’s controversial interior secretary.
Like Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action, The Day the Earth Caved In is a seminal investigation of individual rights, corporate privilege, and governmental indifference to the powerless. Exposing facts in prose that reads like fiction, Quigley shows us what happens to a small community when disaster strikes, and what it means to call someplace home.
Praise for The Day the Earth Caved In:
"Her scene-by-scene narrative reads like fiction but inspires outrage in the muckraking tradition of Lincoln Steffens and Rachel Carson.”
—The New York Times
"[A]s a piece of explanatory journalism, The Day The Earth Caved In shines."
—Washington Post Book World
“It is quite a story.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“First rate research and journalism combing to tell a sad, often infuriating tale.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred)
“ Quigley’s riveting account of the nation’s most devastating mine fire will change the way you think about so-called natural disasters, and the emotions we attach to the places we call home. This is an extraordinary book.” — Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American Democracy
“Quigley’s tale is a real-life epic of brutally indifferent government, greedy corporations and the unlikely heroes who fight for their basic human rights. It's all here; made in America. You'll feel enraged to know the truth of what happened in our mountains and proud of your fellow Americans who took on Goliath."
— John Passacantando, Executive Director, Greenpeace USA
“If you can imagine a book that combines the gritty dignity of How Green Was My Valley with the muckraking of Silent Spring, then you have some sense of this deeply affecting work.”
— Samuel G. Freedman, author of Upon This Rock
“Joan Quigley, the granddaughter of coal miners, has combined meticulous reporting and personal passion to bring us this important book — one that illuminates an underground blaze that many corporate and government officials sought to smother and conceal.”
— Gay Talese, author of A Writer’s Life
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Joan Quigley | | Hardcover: | 272 pages | | Publisher: | Random House | | Publication Date: | April 03, 2007 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 1400061806 | | Package Length: | 9.3 inches | | Package Width: | 6.1 inches | | Package Height: | 0.8 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.05 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 21 reviews |
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 Take a pass Aug 13, 2008
If you are looking for facts on the Centralia fire this isn't the book to start with. This book focusses on three people out of the hundreds affected and then only during a period of time from 1979 until 1983 when the government finally agreed to do something for Centralians. Considering her comments in the afterword about the immense amount of research and information she went through, this book is a disappointment.
As others have noted, Quigley seems fixated on what people supposedly were wearing and a lot of similar minutiae that is distracting from the story. I also find it hard to believe anyone would remember after all these years exactly what they were wearing on any particular day, or whether there were leaves crunching underfoot, etc. It's a book that doesn't know if it wants to be a historical record or a "reality" novel.
Quigley also adds little (one fact really) to David DeKok's excellent history of the mine fire. And without footnotes or references it's hard to tell where Quigley got her facts from.
As to the cause she puts forward, it defies logic. While hot ashes could well have started the fire I have my doubts. I grew up with an coal heater in the basement and the ashes never would've stayed hot enough to ignite anything unless one took them from the heater directly to the dump. Even then I have my doubts. I'd bet heavier on the fire department setting the dump on fire as the former chief admits to her.
It's probably the first book I ever bought that I almost wish I hadn't since it was a waste of time and money. Though, as another reviewer pointed out, the pictures and map are better than the ones in DeKok's work. Still, not worth the price.
 Waste of time: More elegy for her family than informative Jun 02, 2008
If you'd like to learn about the Centralia fire and the blundering of local, state, and federal nincompoops that have led to the devastation of the town, then read "Unseen Danger: A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia Mine Fire" by David DeKok. If instead, you want to waste your time with a silly little Ivy League girl's infatuation with her forebears, loosely connected to the present day fire, then read this plodding book, which only adds one little blurb about a dumpload of smoldering coal ash onto the cause of the fire. B-O-R-I-N-G!
Fascinating story deserves better writer Mar 18, 2008
In setting out to write the "great American tragedy", Quigley fails to provide coherent structure, dates and timelines. Her writing is colorful but undisciplined, and I found myself becoming increasingly irritated as the story's momentum sagged beneath her flowery prose and banal Creative Writing 101 metaphors. There are also disconcerting jumps between first and third person narrative and a general lack of dates that could have helped orient the reader as the story jumps back and forth through time. Equal blame should be placed on her editor, who should have reigned her in.
But worst of all, starting with PART THREE, the author introduces an obvious bias against the Regan administration that is so blatant, it calls into question her motivations throughout the rest of the book. I'm not politically Left or Right, but I can't trust any history book that injects that much of a personal bias into its narrative.
I live not far from Centralia, have driven past it many times and have always been curious as to its story. I came to this book excited to learn and became so disenchanted and irritated with the author's writing that I was moved to post my first review on this site. My recomendation is to save your money and seek out a better source for this story.
 How a fire beneath you can destroy a community. Feb 25, 2008
This book examines a mine fire in Centralia, one of the tragic unintended results of the economic might of coal mining that helped build Pennsylvania. As the industry faded away into mostly bootleg and now sporadic operations, the mines remained. Inside many of these mines are long neglected fires with enough coal to keep the fires burning for years. These coal fires create tragedies when the fires and their toxins reach up through the surface. Unfortunately, in Centralia, these fires threaten an entire borough. This book describes the history of the Centralia mine fires, how its residents reacted, and how public officials mishandled the situation and let situations grow worse. Students of state government operations may wish to note the mistakes made by the Thornburgh Administration to the Centralia difficulties.
The region around Centralia once boasted of 14 mine operations, each employing hundreds, with three United Mine Workers locals within Centralia. When the mines closed, local residents were left with the smell of sulfur from the inferno beneath them. Yet, with an average income half the national average and generations of proud residencies, many remained, despite the smell and the existence of ominous pipes used for venting the fire's steam. Yet, when a boy fell into a hole in back yard and narrowly escaped death from the 160 degree heat and monoxide level that was thirty times above the government's set exposure threshold, the residents realized the situation had grown far more serious. The fire was reaching them.
Fire does not know politics, yet the Centralia fire raged at a most politically inopportune time. It roared during the Reagan Revolution, at a time when President Reagan and Governor Thornburgh were calling for cutbacks in government services spending and for relaxing environmental standards to encourage business growth. An expensive fire operation caused by failed corporate environmental failure was low on the government's list of priorities and indeed may have been embarrassing to their goals.
This book provides an excellent history of the Centralia fire along with a description of public policy mistakes that hopefully we may learn from. The fire first surfaced at a landfill. The state required the borough government officials to daily dump clay onto the fire. Yet, the state failed to recognize that Centralia was a depressed community with only $2,300 in its General Fund. The borough officials could not afford to do what the state required of them, so, while they did apply clay when they could afford to, they did what many local officials in similar situations do. They pretended the problem didn't exist or wasn't really that important. Meanwhile, the fire spread. Finally, upon realizing the fire was burning out of control, borough officials called for help.
Under the law, the Federal government would pay for half the costs of extinguishing the fire and either the coal company or the state government paying the other half. The cost of putting out the Centralia fire was estimated to be about $30,000. Yet, the coal company, despite having $3.8 million in assets and $50,000 cash on hand, claimed they could not afford to pay their half. The state government ignored the problem. While no party was emerging to pay to control it, the fire continued raging and estimated costs of ending the fire escalated to $296,000 until parties agree to spend only a fraction of what was need, at $100,000. This efforts were "too little, too late" and those efforts failed. The problem continued growing until a later insufficient $2.8 million effort later failed. The fire was raging ahead of the efforts to put it out.
Federal and state government officials continued squabbling over who should pay to put out the Centralia fire, which continued enlarging into an estimated $9 million plus operation. While federal officials were declaring there was no threat from the fire, state officials were discovering carbon monoxide levels within Centralia at life threatening levels. A new federal law taxed the coal industry for mine reclamation efforts. Yet, Reagan's Interior Secretary James Watt favored directing mine reclamation efforts more towards bituminous coal mines in Western states. The solution offered by the Interior Department for Centralia was they would spend a total of $1 million to assist Centralia residents to move away. Any other spending, they insisted, would have to come from the state government. The state government, though, appeared to pay little attention to the problem, a point on which many fault Governor Dick Thornburgh. Governor Thornburgh never once visited Centralia. Concerned Citizens (a group of Centralia residents) lobbied Congress to address the Central issue, and surprisingly, Pennsylvania's Senator John Heinz cancelled meeting with these advocates. Senator Arlen Specter at least met with residents, yet seemed to agree with the Reagan Administration officials that relocating residents may be the only option. Secretary Watt authorized $11 million in Pennsylvania mine substance control, yet not one dollar was allocated for Centralia. The Federal government finally agreed to create a $850,000 study to determine the fire's location, information most Centralia residents were able to provide for free and which still did nothing to solve the problem.
Finally, most of Centralia citizens decided to relocate. For relocation efforts, Congress provided $42 million. To this day, a fire that could have been put out for a few thousand dollars, has cost tens of millions of dollars, and continues burning to this day. This book provides an excellent description of the residents' anger, fear, and bitterness amongst themselves and their conflicts over how to handle matters. This book shows the human element and the words of those directly affected by the Centralia fire. This is an excellent book of true human emotion alongside a valuable description of an important part of local history. Readers of Pennsylvania history, coal mining, government decision making will all greatly appreciate this book, as well as readers who want to know what it feels like to live with a continuous fire burning underneath your home.
 A story that needed to be told Jan 30, 2008
This is a story that needed to be told. And there are many more out there, quite similar, it seems, that we also need to hear. I found the historical aspects particularly fascinating, and will look for more information in that regard. However, I wasn't as taken with the long sections about how the local residents fought for government action. The egregious failures of the state and local governments are an outrage. Seeing more recent disasters, such as Katrina, sadly makes one aware that, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
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