On May 27, 1962, a coal seam beneath the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, caught fire, creating an underground blaze that eventually rendered the town uninhabitable and is still burning today. Centralia had been a coal town going back a hundred years, and was built above a large deposit of anthracite coal. The borough used an abandoned mine as a landfill, and would burn the trash every year before Memorial Day weekend. In 1962, this landfill fire was not properly extinguished, and entered the network of the underground mines, fueled by an exposed vein of anthracite. In attempting to examine the fire, state workers drilled holes in the ground, unwittingly fueling the fire with fresh air. None of the efforts extinguished the fire, and residents began complaining of the effects of carbon monoxide. In 1979, a gas station worker who had noticed unusual temperatures in an underground gas tank measured the gasoline’s temperature, which was over 170° F. Repeated and varied attempts were made to extinguish the fire, but none were successful. In 1981, a twelve-year-old boy fell into a sinkhole that suddenly opened beneath his feet; if his cousin had not been there to save him, he would have plunged into the 150-foot-deep sinkhole and died from the fall, the heat, or the carbon monoxide. Numerous other sinkholes have appeared in the town, both before and after the 1981 incident. In 1984, Congerss began relocation efforts, and most residents left the town during the following years. The entire borough was condemned in 1992, and only about ten residents remain. At its present rate, the fire is expected to burn for the next 250 years.
And then they used it for inspiration for the silent hill movie.
The residents believe the government wants them gone so they can have the mineral rights back if I recall. Scary place, but fascinating the way nature works…
