An Abandoned Pennsylvania Town Has Been On Fire For 53 Years

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

The fire in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada reminded me of a part of American history that anyone with a concern for the environment should be aware of. When will we learn?

Centralia is a borough and a near-ghost town in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its population has dwindled from over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 10 in 2010 as a result of the coal mine fire that has been burning beneath the borough since 1962.

All real estate in the borough were claimed under eminent domain and therein condemned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1992 and Centralia's ZIP code was discontinued by the Postal Service in 2002. State and local officials reached an agreement with the remaining residents on October 29, 2013, allowing them to live out their lives there, after which the rights of their houses will be taken through eminent domain.

Please note:

For anyone with a doubt that Centralia is still on fire to this day, last fall I took a photographer to take photos of environmental damage in Pennsylvania as part of the anti-pipeline campaign in New York. Yes, the ground is still on fire.

There are many more articles on this topic, it's something we should all know about.

CFS



http://www.centraliapa.org/

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2196

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/this-abandoned-pennsylvania-town-has-been-on-fire-for-53-years_us_55df6490e4b08dc09486d4a0

[underpants]

1. Still a fascinating story

[shadowrider]

2. I remember watching a documentary on this town

As I recall, a bunch of garbage was being burned at the town dump and a small sinkhole opened up into the coal caverns below. The coal caught fire and before anyone realized the coal had lit, the fire was too big to put out.

Unless they pour half of the Pacific Ocean into those caverns, that fire will burn for several hundred years.

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

3. There is a book on this topic....

...how they dug at the mine for years, sectioned it off, excavated....

Nothing worked.

http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Underground-Ongoing-Tragedy-Centralia/dp/0762754273

[My Good Babushka]

4. It's going to burn for at least a hundred more years. nt.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Somewhat similar: the Indonesian mud volcano

The Sidoarjo mud flow or Lapindo mud (informally abbreviated as Lusi, a contraction of Lumpur Sidoarjo wherein lumpur is the Indonesian word for mud) is the result of an erupting mud volcano[1] in the subdistrict of Porong, Sidoarjo in East Java, Indonesia that has been in eruption since May 2006. It is the biggest mud volcano in the world; responsibility for it was credited to the blowout of a natural gas well drilled by PT Lapindo Brantas, although some scientists[2] and company officials contend it was caused by a distant earthquake.

At its peak Lusi spewed up to 180,000 m³ of mud per day.[3] By mid August 2011, mud was being discharged at a rate of 10,000 m³ per day, with 15 bubbles around its gushing point. This was a significant decline from the previous year, when mud was being discharged at a rate of 100,000 cubic metres per day with 320 bubbles around its gushing point.[4] It is expected that the flow will continue for the next 25 to 30 years.[3][5] Although the Sidoarjo mud flow has been contained by levees since November 2008, resultant floodings regularly disrupt local highways and villages, and further breakouts of mud are still possible.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidoarjo_mud_flow

[truebluegreen]

6. I've been thinking about this town

for the last few days, once I heard of the proximity of Fort McMurray to the tar sands. I wonder how long they would burn if they got started (reportedly an industry spokesman says the tar sands don't have enough concentrated fuel in them to sustain a fire but I quit believing those guys long ago).

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

8. 'An industry spokesman.....'

Sure, whatever they say.

[truebluegreen]

10. I thought exactly. nt

[redwitch]

7. We drove through there at dusk many years ago.

Really spooky.

[TexasProgresive]

9. I wonder if Centralia, PA was the inspiration for Valkenvania, NJ

In the movie "Nothing But Trouble."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_but_Trouble_%281991_film%29

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

11. "Nothing but Trouble received overwhelmingly negative reviews, and was a box office bomb"

No idea. Did not see it.

[TexasProgresive]

13. It's a horror comedy, really strange.

I a fan of John Candy and Dan Aykroyd. I thought it was hilarious, but there's no accounting for taste.

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

16. John Candy and Dan Aykroyd.

That was a fun crew...

Bill Murray, Harold Ramis....

Of course, my favorite was Stripes

Arrrrrrmmmmmyyyyyy Training, Sir!

[tom_kelly]

28. My name's Dewey Oxburger.

My friends call me Ox. As you can see, I have a bit of a weight problem. Yes. Yes, I do. My doctor says I swallow a lot of aggression; along with a lot of pizzas

[keithbvadu2]

19. Hilarious for sure.

One of those movies that has no need for nitpicking criticism.

Just fun entertainment.

[Marrah_G]

26. I believe it was the inspiration for "silent hill"

[felix_numinous]

12. With global warming

it's suicide to bring flammable things to the surface, natural gas, fossil fuels, coal--it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out.

[Katashi_itto]

14. Centralia was the Inspiration for "Silent Hill" The Movie

[Katashi_itto]

15. Centralia - Full Documentary

[zentrum]

17. Hell on Earth—Literally.

[The Jungle 1]

18. Centralia is only a small part of the coal baron's damage to my state

My state of Pa has 6000 miles of dead streams thanks to the coal barons. Think about that a moment. We spend millions every year attempting to clean up this mess. 6000 miles. The streams are full of mine acid and totally lifeless. The rocks are orange. Wonder if the coal barons will come back and clean up this mess. Will the families who still spend the money clean it up.

We now have a Democrat as Governor. Wolf. However the entire state congress is republican. What these crooks are selling now is fracking. No worries fracking is entirely safe they tell us. I hate these crooks.

Over the last four years we had total republican control of the state. They gave out massive corporate tax cuts. It was gonna create jobs!!!!! We lag the nation in job creation. 47th I believe. Now repukes want cut funding to our schools and end the public sector pension system.

These scum bags hate us.

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

21. I feel like I'm bragging....

and I don't mean to brag or boast when I describe how I live in a region (the Catskills watershed) that provides New York City with unfiltered drinking water.

Water supply testing stations throughout the city reveal a water quality at least as good as most bottled water, often better.

We have unbelievably strict regulation in this area. When I was doing a walk-though of a hiking trail (I volunteer for NY/NJ Trail Conference) I came across a pile of trash about the size of a pickup truck bed.

I called the environmental cops (NYS DEC EnCon P.D.) we dug through the pile, found some notebook pages with names on them.

The cops had the pile removed - by the people that did the dumping - by the end of the weekend.

[Dont call me Shirley]

22. FDR welcomed their hatred and so should we. Rise Up against the oligarchs!

[Warpy]

20. Visits to the area are spooky

Since the streets aren't being maintained, you'll see small trees sprouting through them in some of the cooler areas. You can tell where some of the houses were because of the vent pipes still in the yard, placed to vent poisonous coal smoke somewhere beside inside the house. The vents didn't work all that well, so the entire town was condemned.

I remember reading about this when I was a kid, that's how long the town has had defunct coal mines underneath it burning. The start of the fire is apocryphal, but most people blame it on a fire at the town dump, although they're hazy on how the fire jumped from there to a coal seam. What is known is that the coal is very high grade and burning anaerobically, meaning sealing up all the mine entrances wouldn't have put the fire out.

In the end, money won out and it was deemed a lot cheaper to move everyone out than develop heroics to put the fire out.

[MarianJack]

23. When I still lived in the Philly suburbs,...

...there was still the occasional news story about Centralia...sad.

PEACE!

[Marrah_G]

27. A former resident made a documentary on it "The town that was"

[AuntPatsy]

24. A lot more to this tradegy that may never be known, wonderful town, good people...

They were displaced as if they were a commodity, so very sad....

[JVS]

25. Centralia isn't an isolated case. In the Pittsburgh area there are several mine fires ongoing.

Within Allegheny County there are seven underground mine
fires burning in:
■ Plum Borough (at the Renton Mine)
■ Two in Findlay Township (one near Clinton and one
near Route 60)
■ Jefferson/West Elizabeth (at the Tepe Pump Station
Mine)
■ Baldwin Borough (near Churchview Avenue)
■ Kennedy Township (along Moon Run near Chartiers
Creek)
■ Hays neighborhood in the City of Pittsburgh

http://www.alleghenyplaces.com/docs/draftplan/chapter4f.pdf

[El Supremo]

29. The Burning Mountain Mine in New Castle, Colo. has also been...

burning for more than a century.

The original explosion killed 49 miners in 1896.

[kayakjohnny]

30. Thank you.

Was just going to mention that too. I've hiked up there and it's easy to see. Just above the school. Right along I-70 and the Colorado River. It's the last part of the Grand Hogback Range as it hooks to the south, just before it ends. Right above the town, and most people don't even know it's there.