Judge deals setback to residents of central Pa. coal town above decades-old mine fire

Pa. town above mine fire dealt legal setback

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A state appeals judge said Monday that while he sympathizes with residents of a central Pennsylvania town decimated by a mine fire, he has no jurisdiction to hear arguments about why they should be allowed to stay in their homes — at least not yet.

Most homes in Centralia were demolished in the 1980s as an underground fire that began in 1962 threatened residents with poisoning gases and dangerous sinkholes. A $42 million government relocation program was largely completed by 1993, when officials invoked eminent domain to get dozens of holdouts to leave.

Most did, eventually, but a handful of residents have mounted a last-ditch legal effort to stave off eviction.

Residents assert the state government is part of a conspiracy to swipe the mineral rights to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of anthracite coal — rights now owned by the borough itself. They say the fire has either burned itself out or has moved away from the town, eliminating the state’s rationale for kicking them out.

Their attorney, Bart Holmes, told Senior Commonwealth Court Judge Keith Quigley on Monday that no court has ever explored these issues. He asked Quigley to stop the state from evicting his clients.

“What I’ve heard you say, that impresses me,” Quigley replied, adding there “can’t be any ducking of these issues by an appellate court, possibly the Supreme Court.”

But he said that while the residents’ claims are unique and might have merit, he was bound to rule against them on jurisdictional and procedural grounds.

The residents have yet to exhaust their legal options. A federal lawsuit is planned, and another of their attorneys, Don Bailey, said he might ask the state Supreme Court to intervene directly. The case might also wind up back in Commonwealth Court, an intermediate appeals court that hears matters involving state and local governments.

Tom Hynoski, a Centralia native whose mother and sister are among the plaintiffs, said he’s tiring of the nearly two-decade legal battle.

“It’s a shame when you have to keep fighting the government,” he said.