Word: centralia
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This spectacular increase has created appalling living conditions for many inmates, who are sleeping in gymnasiums, day rooms, corridors, tents, trailers and other forms of makeshift housing. Until early November, 170 prisoners were sleeping on the floor of a gymnasium at Illinois' Centralia Correctional Center. And Maryland, with one of the country's most grossly crowded systems, is bunking prisoners in basements, recreation areas, temporary buildings and "anywhere they'll fit," according to an official. Says Lawrence Kurlander, chief criminal justice adviser to New York Governor Mario Cuomo: "It is absolutely critical that we provide more space...
...Centralia's residents are steaming...
...Centralia's ordeal began in 1962, when fire from a refuse pit southeast of town spread into one of the coal seams and then into the mines, eventually forcing them to close. At first, no one seemed terribly concerned. A 1965 attempt to locate and excavate the blaze-the only way to extinguish an anthracite fire-was abandoned when local funds ran out. A number of subsequent attempts were also unsuccessful. Many townspeople assumed that if they ignored the fire it would eventually burn itself...
...Centralia likely to come from anywhere else. Two men appeared in April, introducing themselves as representatives of an unidentified company interested in purchasing Centralia. They offered to buy out homeowners and establish a new town a few miles away in return for the right to mine the coal under Centralia. Most residents did not take the proposal too seriously. Says Tom Larkin, president of the Concerned Citizens Action Group: "We're not that desperate...
...people of Centralia may have to wait a bit longer. An underground mine fire at Carbondale, 50 miles to the north, burned for 33 years before it was finally extinguished in 1965. That fire asphyxiated six people before the Federal Government dug it out and smothered it with water and slurry. Centralia's fire has not killed anyone yet. -By Peter Staler