| It happened an hour ago | 
| Way down in this tunnel of coal | 
| Gas caught fire from somebody’s lamp | 
| And the miners are choking in smoke | 
| Goodbye to Dickie and Honey | 
| Goodbye to the wife that I love | 
| Lot of these men not coming home | 
| Tonight when the work whistle blows | 
| Dear sisters and brothers, goodbye | 
| Dear mother and father, goodbye | 
| My fingers are weak and I cannot write | 
| Goodbye Centralia, goodbye | 
| It looks like the end for me | 
| And all of my buddies I see | 
| We’re all writing letters to children we love | 
| Please carry our word to our wives | 
| We, found a little place in the air | 
| Crawled and drug ourselves here | 
| But the smoke is bad and the fumes coming in | 
| And the gas is burning my eyes | 
| Dear sisters and brothers, goodbye | 
| Dear mother and father, goodbye | 
| My fingers are weak and I cannot write | 
| Goodbye Centralia, goodbye | 
| Forgive me for the things I done wrong | 
| I love you lots more than you know | 
| When the night whistle blows and I don’t come home | 
| Do all that you can to help mom | 
| I can hear the moans and groans | 
| More than a hundred good men | 
| Just work and fight and try to see | 
| That this never happens again | 
| Dear sisters and brothers, goodbye | 
| Dear mother and father, goodbye | 
| My fingers are weak and I cannot write | 
| Goodbye Centralia, goodbye | 
| My eyes are blinded with fumes | 
| But it sounds like the men are all gone | 
| 'Cept Joe Valentini, Fred Gussler and George | 
| Trapped down in this hell hole of fire | 
| Please name our new baby Joe | 
| So he’ll grow up like big Joe | 
| He’ll work and he’ll fight and he’ll fix up the mines | 
| So fire can’t kill daddy no more | 
| Dear sisters and brothers, goodbye | 
| Dear mother and father, goodbye | 
| My fingers are weak and I cannot write | 
| Goodbye Centralia, goodbye |