SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - Kinda like the Springfield tire fire, only depressing.

Posted: Feb 05 2010 10:16 am

In 1962, a fire began in the garbage dump of Centralia, PA. It ignited an exposed coal vein, and since the town lacked the resources to adequately handle the situation, the fire spread to a series of abandoned mines beneath the town, igniting more coal. In the 80s, it was ruled that the town was too dangerous to live in, due to sinkholes and poisonous gas, so the federal government seized the land by eminent domain and appropriated $42 million to compensate residents for their homes. But some people refused to leave. In the 90s, dozens of people remained in Centralia. Now there are only five remaining houses, down from sixteen in 2006.

It's a fascinating story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100205/ap_on_re_us/us_centralia_s_final_days

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Feb 05 2010 10:41 am

Didn't it hit a Cracked article a while back?

I remember looking into it and finding a couple coal mine fires. These things do not fuck around.

Posted: Feb 05 2010 10:52 am

I'm familiar with it. I've heard that Centralia was the basis for the town itself in Silent Hill. I've lived (briefly) in Pennsylvania so I debated going there, but heard the road could sink in and kill you, and I'm against that. I think recently I-Mockery did a thing about going and saying that basically, all that's left is hollowed out houses here and there and a bunch of grass.

Posted: Feb 05 2010 12:32 pm

Its crazy that a fire can just burn and burn for that long. You'd think eventually it would choke itself out, but I guess it's got adequate oxygen and ventilation gaps on the surface.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Feb 05 2010 12:54 pm

Ice2SeeYou wrote:

Its crazy that a fire can just burn and burn for that long. You'd think eventually it would choke itself out, but I guess it's got adequate oxygen and ventilation gaps on the surface.

The ground finds a way to let air in to fuel the fire and vent out the toxic gasses. That's what causes the sinkholes and makes the area around the fire uninhabitable.

Here's some wikilove on mine fires. These things can burn for centuries sometimes. Keep in mind that there's literally tons of fuel for this thing to feed on.

Joined: Mar 13 2009 Location: Arlington Posts: 467

I drove by last year to see if it was still burning. Sure enough, I found part of the abandoned highway and there's smoke still coming up from the ground. I didn't see much left of the town. I hope the county doesn't try to fence the whole area off and sell it to Big Business. It's a nice place to walk around and imagine what went on here.

Here's a link that I saw when I first was doing some research on the place. Cool pics.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/einhard.htmlhttp://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/centralia.htm

Joined: Oct 01 2009 Posts: 5316

WHY would you continue to live there? You'll only reminise about the good ol' days...

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

I traveled down there (only about a 90-minute drive from where I am), and at this point, anything interesting has been bull-dozed, and there's actually a small collection of people still living nearby. I really only saw 3 or 4 buildings standing, but saw some of the smoke. It's not really what people expect from it.