June 15, 2007

Coal Fire Burns Beneath Town Since 1962 The town of Centralia, Pennsylvania is all but abandonded now. 46 years ago, a carelessly set garbage fire set a vein of coal in the mines below the town on fire.

If you were driving north on route 61 in the heart of the Anthracite coal region in Pennsylvania, you may have come across a detour of 61 at the top of a hill in a community called Ashland. Thinking nothing of it you would have followed the detour signs that took you around some possible road construction or a bridge being worked on. You're then reconnected with Rt. 61 again. Many have followed this path in recent years with little knowledge of the on going story of this little detour and the town that no longer is really a town. If you had disregarded the detour signs and make the right that 61 north takes through Ashland your first clue that something isn't right would be the abrupt end to route 61 as it once was. Now the ghost town is a place for the curious to pass through and snap photos of slag heaps, smoking fissures,abandoned cemeteries with vents installed for the sulfur gas, and buckled highways.

posted by Lara 17 years ago
  • That's 46 years ago, obv.
  • Looks like a smokin' place.
  • That's hot.
  • Heartbreaking.
  • Thank you for hoping me fix my number, Tracy!
  • There are underground coal fires all over the world, and they aren't going out anytime soon.
  • Ghostowns = ♥
  • Erm..isn't that 45 years ago? Last time I looked, I was born in 1963, the year AFTER the Centralia fire began, and I will be 44 in August. Thanks for the links!
  • briank -- You are obviously not familiar with the Pernophocles Theory which states that 1983 went into a loop and essentially repeated itself. The proof of this involves some complex equations, Ronald Reagan clearly aging nine years whil in office (look at the photographic evidence!) and Michael Jackson's Thriller clearly selling more copies than an album possibly could in one year's time. It also helps to explain what went on for me in the eighth grade.
  • I was going to make an FPP about Centralia after reading about it in A Walk in the Woods, but then I didn't for some reason. And now I don't have to!
  • Who knew? Fascinating stuff.
  • No, that was another of my typos. For some reason, I thought that I read the fire started in 1961, so figured 46, but typed 36. Then I changed it to the correct 1962, but stood by my shoddy math. At least I don't work at a bank. I spent hours looking at these picture yesterday. I don't know why it's so captivating to me, but it is. I guess it's the idea that nature got the best of us. Although, reading deeper, it seems that the fire possibly could be put out, but the cost was estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. It would only cost $42 to buy out and relocate the homes, so that's what the government did.
  • Oh, god! $42 million! I have this thing with numbers. I don't know what it is.
  • And you work for?
  • Holy crap, what about lead poisoning?
  • I crapped up LOTS, too