This Ghost Town Located In Pennsylvania Has Been On Fire For 60 Years And It’s So Creepy That It Inspired A Horror Film
In the early 1900s, a town in Pennsylvania known as Centralia was once renowned for possessing fourteen active coal mines and a population of two thousand and five hundred residents.
Then, in the 1960s, Centralia kissed its fame goodbye after an eery coal mine fire broke out that could never be extinguished.
Nonetheless, even though all of the mines became abandoned and many residents fled the town, one thousand people still regarded Centralia as their home.
It all began in May 1962, when Centralia’s town council congregated to discuss their new landfill. It was fifty feet deep and had only been dug earlier that year to combat the town’s illegal dumping issue.
But, it had become full– and a strategy to clear the landfill was desperately needed before Centralia’s yearly Memorial Day celebration.
So, the council members came up with what was considered a genius idea at the time. They proposed simply burning up the items in the landfill to create more space. And after following through with the plan on May 27, 1962– it worked for a short time.
The town’s fire department even lined the landfill to ensure they contained the large blaze and that it did not travel to neighboring homes.
But, just two days after the flames were thought to be extinguished, the unthinkable happened. Random fires began popping up throughout the community, and officials were utterly baffled.
Then, after employing rakes and bulldozers to investigate the landfill, they realized the problem– the bottom of the town’s trash pit was directly connected with the maze of coal tunnels thousands of feet below ground.
Brandon Schultz – stock.adobe.com – pictured above is part of “graffiti highway” in Centralia
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And shortly after this realization, residents began to suffer from putrid odors and noticed smoke seeping out of the ground surrounding the landfill.
The town council was even forced to contract a mine inspector, who reported that “a fire of unknown origin” had been blazing underneath the town.
Afterward, fire departments throughout Pennsylvania worked tirelessly to try and stop the fire’s spread.
They first tried to dig out trenches that could expose the flames for extinguishing. Then, they attempted to flush out the fire using a concoction of water and crushed rocks.
Tragically, though, none of these efforts ever worked, and the budget for Centralia’s fire containment quickly ran out– running thousands of residents out of town with it.
Still, in the 1980s, about one thousand residents refused to leave the town. Instead, they found the silver lining of living among the hot and smoky ground. For example, some enjoyed never having to shovel snow off the sidewalks, while others liked that the heat allowed for tomatoes to grow in the dead of winter.
Regardless of these “upsides,” though, many residents also experienced the fatal effects of the eternal fire.
Some homeowners passed out in their homes due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Trees and wildlife also began to perish from the smoky air and ash-turned ground.
And the real tragedy began in February of 1981 when Centralia’s remaining residents witnessed the opening of a massive sinkhole.
Twelve-year-old resident Todd Domboski had been standing outside when, all of a sudden, a sinkhole one hundred and fifty feet deep emerged underneath him.
The child only survived since he was miraculously able to grab an exposed tree root and hang on until his cousin arrived to rescue him.
But, this tragedy, which nearly took the life of a child, pushed the federal government to take authoritative action over Centralia.
Officials decided to purchase the town for forty-two million dollars, revoke the town’s ZIP code, demolish the remaining buildings, and relocate the remaining residents.
The government’s actions were not well received by all of Centralia’s residents, though. Instead, some actually fought legal battles to remain in their hometown, and by 1993, the state of Pennsylvania invoked eminent domain over Centralia.
In turn, sixty-three residents were able to remain in their homes that they had owned for decades and continued to run the town council, elect a mayor, and pay bills. Still, they were officially regarded as “squatters.”
And by 2013, less than ten residents remained in Centralia. Nonetheless, they won a large settlement against the state of Pennsylvania for trying to take away their homes.
Each individual was awarded just under three hundred and fifty thousand dollars and also won ownership of their property until the day they died.
Then, once all residents have passed, the state of Pennsylvania will finally obtain ownership of the town’s property and demolish all remaining structures.
But, for now, less than five people still reside in Centralia as of 2022.
Experts have also eerily estimated that there is enough coal beneath the town to continue fueling the fire for another two hundred and fifty years.
And the unbelievable occurrence has given Centralia a spooky reputation in popular media– inspiring classic horror films such as Silent Hill in 2006.
People from across the country have also visited Centralia to get an in-person glimpse of the ghost town.
Some of them, who are artists, have even transformed a near mile-stretch of road into what is now known as “graffiti highway.”
And today, anyone who dares to visit the abandoned town will be met with seeping smoke, decaying shops, and an encroaching forest– making Centralia feel like a post-apocalyptic world.
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