Homes Lost to Unseen Fire
The loss of 27 homes to a fire that never so much as scorched one of them is the unique experience of Chief William Klementovich of Centralia, Pa. The reason is that gases from 140 acres of coal burning beneath the mining town made the homes unfit for occupancy. (See Fire Engineering, September 1981, page 24.)
Meanwhile, the townspeople are awaiting the start of test borings, for which Congress has appropriated $850,000, to define the limits of the underground fire that threatens to make the entire town unhabitable.
