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The 100-year-old Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary church stands on a hill overlooking the smoldering remains of Centralia, PA.

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Took a journey to Centralia, Pennsylvania over the weekend, which is about a 3 hour drive from where I live. This town was used as the basis for the setting in the video game and film “Silent Hill”. It’s complete with fog warning signs, dilapidated homes and trailers, as well as it’s primary attraction: A mine fire that has been burning underneath the town for over fifty years. The smoke from the fire pours out all over the terrain where the ground has been splitting open over the years, and is warm to the touch. The town had been evacuated about 20 years ago and the only thing that remains in well kept condition is an incredibly ominous looking orthodox church. One could not help but recognize the absurdity and maintaining a church while the rest of the town collapses in on itself. It offers a hauntingly accurate portrayal of humanities main issues on a collective scale: the insanity of prioritizing that which is immaterial vs that which is indisputably existent.

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Underground fires still burn in this abandoned mining town- Centralia, PA

Source: jazzyjake (reddit)

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A road leading to the small town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, where an underground fire has been burning since 1962

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Instagramming the Smoldering Ghost Town of Centralia, Pennsylvania

In May of 1962, a fire—the origins of which remain in dispute—ignited a strain of anthracite coal beneath a landfill on the outskirts of Centralia, Pennsylvania.

It would be nearly 20 years before the severity of the still-smoldering fire would become clear to the town’s inhabitants. All but a few residents voluntarily relocated to nearby towns in 1984, and despite the state’s reclaiming the land in 1992, approximately 10 people still call Centralia home.

The town’s abandoned buildings and fire-scarred landscape attract a few intrepid Instagrammers each month. Explore Centralia through their photos and videos by searching the #Centralia hashtag and visiting the Centralia, PA and Graffiti Highway location pages.

carnivalgraveyards

Both roads lead to the abandoned town of Centralia, Pennsylvania. The bottom picture is where the PA Route 61 highway terminates at the exit for Centralia. A raging underground fire caused by the Centralia mine still burns today, more than 50 years after it’s initial flame.

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Abandoned home in Centralia, Pennsylvania. A ghost town that’s been on fire, literally, for the past 53 years. No one knows exactly how the Centralia fire started, but the strongest theory is that burning trash from a nearby landfill accidentally ignited coal below an old entrance to the mine. The fire then spread through the mines. Roger Avery, writer of the film Silent Hill, has spoken about using the town of Centralia to inspire the eerie visuals of his film.

The state government condemned Centralia in 1992 and almost all of its residents left. Today, just about a dozen people live there. The fire covers six square miles and spreads 75 feet per year. It could burn for another 250 years.

atlasobscura

Centralia: The Ghost Town Abandoned Because of the Fire Beneath It

When you think of American ghost towns, it’s likely that you picture a crumbling Wild West outpost. However, in the middle of Pennsylvania, there’s a town that disappeared far more recently. In many ghost towns, it’s the collapse of an industry that caused people to leave. InCentralia, it was the industry itself that resulted in this abandoned town.

Centralia was a quaint town of over 2,000 residents in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. The large coal deposits below the ground helped turn Centralia into a bustling business center in the early parts of the 20th century. All was well until 1962, when an exposed seam of coal caught on fire during a routine trash burning at the landfill.

Over the next two decades, several attempts were made to put out the underground fire, but the its virtually unlimited source of fuel made the attempts futile. Citizens of Centralia knew of the fire, but it wasn’t until 1979 that its extent was fully understood by residents and scientists. It was a local gas station owner who discovered the fire’s true danger when he measured the temperature of his underground storage tanks at 172 degrees — 100 degrees higher than normal.

A few years later, a young boy was swallowed by a large sinkhole caused by the mine fire and was lucky to survive. That incident, the increasing number of sick residents, and the rising levels of carbon monoxide spelled the end for Centralia.

…For a full photo tour and more on Centralia’s abandonment and raging fires, keep reading on Atlas Obscura!