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Centralia: The Town That’s Been Burning for Over 60 Years
In 1962, a small Pennsylvania mining town set in motion one of the strangest and most haunting disasters in American history.
It began with a simple act — burning trash — and became a fire that has never gone out.
The Fire Beneath
In Centralia, Pennsylvania, workers were clearing out a landfill that sat atop an old coal mine shaft. To get rid of the garbage, they set it on fire — a common practice at the time.
But what they didn’t realize was that the pit connected directly to the labyrinth of abandoned coal mines stretching beneath the town.
The flames slipped through cracks and openings in the rock.
Once the coal ignited, the fire began to spread underground — miles of tunnels turning into a blazing inferno beneath the surface.
And it never stopped.
A Town on Fire
At first, no one understood the scale of what was happening.
But within months, smoke began seeping from cracks in roads, toxic gases drifted through basements, and the ground itself grew hot to the touch.
Temperatures in some areas reached over 1,000°F (538°C) — enough to melt asphalt and make the earth unstable.
Children recalled playing on hills that suddenly collapsed into fiery sinkholes.
In 1981, a 12-year-old boy fell into one such crater — only surviving when a relative pulled him out in time.
The Evacuation
By the 1980s, Centralia was a disaster zone.
The U.S. government declared the town unsafe and began relocating residents.
More than 1,000 people were evacuated, their homes condemned and demolished.
Only a handful of residents refused to leave, determined to live out their days in the place they’d always called home.
They became the last citizens of Centralia, surrounded by empty streets, overgrown lots, and the faint hiss of smoke rising from the ground.
The Ghost Town That Still Burns
Today, Centralia is little more than a memory — a few houses, a church, and a cemetery standing above a fire that’s still burning beneath the earth.
Experts estimate the blaze could continue for another 250 years before it runs out of fuel.
The town’s eerie remains — cracked highways, steaming vents, and ghostly silence — have made it a destination for urban explorers and documentary filmmakers.
In fact, Centralia’s haunting atmosphere inspired the setting for the film Silent Hill.
A Warning From Below
Centralia serves as a stark reminder of how a single human mistake can unleash forces beyond control — and how nature sometimes refuses to yield once awakened.
Beneath that quiet Pennsylvania soil, the fire still burns — unseen, unstoppable, and eternal.
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