Will the Fires That Made Centralia a Ghost Town Ever Go Out?

fewer than ten people still live there. The US Postal Service revoked Centralia's zip code in two thousand two, and the local portion of State Route sixty one was permanently closed off nine years before that. We can't blame the area's decline on the usual socioeconomics suspects. Its problems run deeper, literally, since at least nineteen sixty two, a coal seam fire has been smoldering right below the town. Yes, in Centralia, the earth has been smoking and ash has been raining

down for over fifty years. No one knows exactly how the coal fire got started, but whatever set the thing off, this long lived blaze isn't some kind of one off fluke. Naturally occurring coal deposits are called seams in the mining industry, and wherever such veins occur, whole seam fires like the one under Centralia may break out and commonly do. China's three thousand mile or five thousand kilometer coal mining belt

is notorious for its seam fires. So is a town in India where fires have claimed about forty one million tons of coal since nineteen eighteen. We spoke via email with a Newtma Prakash, a geologist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. She said the issue is more prevalent in areas where coal was extracted in the past with limited efforts to ensure that the whole left from the extraction was filled up. She explained that minds that don't provide structural support to

keep ground from collapsing likewise risk seam fire outbreaks. Granted, humans aren't always responsible though. Down in New South Wales, Australia, there's a famous coal seam that's been burning for six thousand years straight. Scientists think it was first ignited by an ancient brush fire or lightning strike. The coal doesn't need much encouragement to catch fire. Under the right circumstances, the material can actually light itself ablaze through spontaneous combustion.

We also spoke via email with research geologist Alan Colker He explained the decomposition of pyrite present in coal produces heat, and in some cases this self heating can start the coal on fire. This is a problem even where coal is transported long distances and ships. By most accounts, Centralia's Great Fire began at a dump near the local Odd Fellows Cemetery on nineteen sixty two. This landfill was intentionally

set ablaze with six volunteer firefighters standing by. It was all part of a yearly clean up effort by the local government. Controlled ns were popular garbage disposal technique back then, but things didn't always go according to plan. Perhaps this fire ran deeper into the trash than anybody realized. If so, it could have spread through the refuse and entered the nearest coal mine pit with no one being the wiser. Then again, maybe the town government had nothing to do

with it. Some have argued that a different garbage fire at the same site, a lit by an unidentified truck driver, is what really sealed Centralia's fate. Another less popular theory claims that the coal seam fire started all the way back in the Great Depression and went unextinguished for decades before the nineteen sixties gave it a new lease on life. Regardless, the inferno made itself right at home, sweeping through mine

tunnels and coal seams. Flames descended as far as three hundred feet that's ninety below the ground, sometimes nearing temperatures of one thousand, three hundred and fifty degrees fahrenheit or seven thirty celsius. According to an investigation, in passageways underlying some four hundred acres or a hundred and sixty hectares of land had been touched by the blaze at some

time or other. Kolker said uncontrolled coal fires have all the potential environmental impacts of burning coal for power generation, with none of the benefits. In addition to emitting carbon dioxide, trace metals such as mercury and harmful fine particles are omitted. Per Cash noted that methane and sulfur dioxide are also common and so distinctive that just talking about these fires virtually floods her with memories of the scent. To this day,

smoke rises from the earth through fissures around Centralia. Meanwhile, the terrain has become perilously unstable over time. Percash said these fires are dangerous as land can suddenly collapse or sink as the fire just eats up the ground underneath. Such collapses can damage houses, roads, train tracks, et cetera. That's why Pennsylvania closed off four thousand feet or about one thousand, two hundred meters of root sixty one back in.

Subterranean pillars that held up the pavement were destroyed or weakened by the flames, making the roadway totally unsuitable for motorists. So will Centralia's fire ever burn out. Extinguishing efforts so far haven't paid off. Between nineteen sixty two and nineteen eighty two, assorted government agencies spent seven million dollars fighting the Centralia coal fire. Openings were sealed, trenches were dug, and the mines were stuffed with non combustible ashes, sands

and crushed rocks, but nothing worked. Nearly all of Centralia's former residents are long gone. Many took advantage of a forty two million dollar taxpayer funded relocation initiative, which saw five hundred buildings destroyed. The final holdouts have been granted permission to spend the rest of their lives in the town,

as per settlement with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. According to the state's Department of Environmental Protection, the fire might keep on raging for over a hundred years yet to come. But as bad as they can get, coal seam fires aren't invincible, Prakash said. Good policies on mining safety and

reclamation go a long way as preventative measure. If a fire does start, taking quick action to contain it by isolating the fire, dousing the fire, cooling the area, and continued monitoring to ensure that the fire does not start

again are important measures. Centralia's hellish effect made it part of the inspiration for the two thousand six horror film Silent Hill, the departure from the video game series that it was adapted from, and over the past thirty odd years, the town Centralia, not Silent Hill, has become an unlikely tourist destination. One former attraction was the abandoned stretch of Root sixty one. Dubbed the Graffiti Highway. It attracted masses of street artists who added a rainbow of cartoons and

signatures to the pavement. However, in twenty twenty, the corporation that the undrivable road had it covered up with piles of dirt, to dissuade visitors from swinging by during the COVID nineteen pandemic. Today's episode was written by Mark Mancini and produced by Tyler Clay. For more on this and lots of other burning topics, visit how stuff works dot com.

Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.