Of the 261 mine fires burning in America in 1982, the Centralia fire was the only one posing a direct threat to the health and safety of residents of a populated area.

Joan Quigley remembers steam coming out of the ground at her grandmother’s burial at the St. Ignatius Cemetery on Locust Avenue in Centralia. It struck her as very strange, and she asked her father what happened.

She learned that in 1962 a coal seam had caught fire and efforts made to put out the underground flames were unsuccessful. The path of the fire was on a direct course with the most populated area of the borough that had a rich mining history, one that included her family.

Eight years later she returned and found the houses boarded up and says the town looked abandoned and forsaken. She also asked herself why some people chose to stay in Centralia despite government money to relocate 90 percent of the population.

That question caused her to leave her government job and pursue the answer full time. She spent the last seven years researching the town, its history, the fire and the incident that catapulted the story into the national spotlight.

The result is a book, The Day the Earth Caved In meticulously written by Quigley, that explores these aspects and in the process she learned much about her family who settled here and has coal dust in its veins. She wanted to understand the feeling of belonging that the people of Centralia had to this place and why a dozen people still live there despite the steam and gases that shroud the borough on a rainy day.

Recently, Quigley returned to the Mount Carmel Library and the Bloomsburg Public Library where she did so much of her research to talk about her book. She told those in attendance at the book signing events that her goal was to tell what it was like for people to live there and to get beyond the mine fire.

One of those she interviewed was Mary Lou Gaughan who was in the audience and has stayed in Centralia for the last 45 years as the fire burned.

The library appearances ended a complex research process that began in 2000, and lead her through government documents, books, mining records, family genealogies, films, television and radio stories, newspapers and other materials.

On hand to witness her success in Mount Carmel were three generations of her own family including her uncle Jim Quigley, 89 years old, and

nephew, Tanner Patrick, six weeks old. Also in attendance were her parents, brothers, aunts, and cousins. It was a joyous time for them, because they knew of the struggles and sacrifices that went into what she did.

There to record the event was Windsor Park Stories producer Tony Mussari who took great pride knowing that the film he produced in 1982, Centralia Fire, was helpful in Quigley's search for what happened in Centralia.

In the early stages of her research, Quigley came to Windsor Park to talk to him about his research and to secure a copy of his film, “Centralia Fire.” The film was one of the 30 or so films to qualified for the Academy Award competition in the 1983 documentary short category. It was instrumental in the vote in Congress to award the residents $42 million dollars to relocate and escape the fire.

Little did we know then that it would help an author produce a masterpiece 25 years later.

After recording her library appearance in Mt. Carmel, Mussari interviewed Quigley as she drove the mountain roads to Bloomsburg. He chuckled when she recited lines from the film verbatim.

Listening to her repeat the lines from an interview my husband conducted on a back street in Bloomsburg with a Centralia émigré all those years ago sent chills down my spine. Centralia Fire still stands as a definitive piece on this part of history in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Another camera at the event in Mount Carmel belonged to Book TV video journalist Richard Hall. Book TV is a network within a network at C-SPAN. Hall's work is part of the 48 hours of programming every weekend on C-SPAN 2.

Joan Quigley's program will be shown on Book TV at a date to be announced. You can check the Book TV schedule at the Links page in the Windsor Park Theater.

It was a storybook ending for Quigley who is a lawyer and lives in Maryland.

She honored a promise she made when she told the staff at both libraries that they would be her first stop when her book was written.

Her accomplishment honored her parents and her relatives.

Her book honors anyone who is interested in a brilliant account, beautifully written, by a woman of talent and grace.

Simply put. It was a great day for Joan Quigley and everyone who was a part of her journey.

(The pictures of Centrailia are taken from the film Centralia Fire, 1982)

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