Comments on: Centralia, a Ghost Town on Fire Since 1962

By: Xydexx

Xydexx — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 07:04:59 +0000

Thanks for the link! There were still people living in Centralia last time I visited, but every year there are fewer and fewer. Visit soon before it’s all gone!

By: http://anangrygeek.blogspot.com/

http://anangrygeek.blogspot.com/ — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:03:04 +0000

I once took a tour of this town, about 2 years ago. It was pretty amazing. Back then, there were still some people that refused to move out, despite generous offers from the government.

By: Slyman

Slyman — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:42:22 +0000

I visited this site in October, and haven’t gotten all of the photo’s onto a website. I can say walking around and seeing brick foundations for the chimneys of houses near where there is smoke coming from the ground is quite an experience. There are still houses that people live in. I think we counted about 4. There is a baseball field, and a basketball court that have both become very overgrown, but are still dicernable. It is an odd feeling to walk on ground that feels solid enough, but see HUGE sinkholes and feel the heat and smell the sulfur-ish odor that covers that area is very hard to describe. There are 2 graveyards on the main hill that the fire is burning under. They appeared to be mostly russian orthodox(no expert opinion, just my impression from the types of crosses, and the odd church overlooking that main hill from the hill to the north. Also while my wife and I were walking around taking pictures there was a coal truck that passed by me not 40 feet away as it was headed to/from a mine. I saw simular trucks parked near a very large(i.e. 90-100′ high and 300-400′ long) mound of black rock I assume is coal that they are pulling from somewhere very nearby. There is a tiny lake almost across the street from the mining facility that was an old hunting and fishing lodge. I don’t think I’d trust any fish from that lake.

By: Carnildo

Carnildo — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:44:18 +0000

The lack of oxygen is why these fires last so long. Coal and rock are good insulators, so the area stays hot, and the trickle of oxygen coming in from various sources lets the fire slowly advance.

By: jono

jono — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 09:53:11 +0000

That is beacuse….

“Centralia was the pre-production codename and a small influence for the movie adaptation of the game Silent Hill.[9]”

…From Wikipedia

By: majutsushi

majutsushi — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:22:14 +0000

This reminds me of Silent Hill.

By: nova72

nova72 — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:32:13 +0000

hard to believe the coal/fire could burn. i would think there would not be enough oxygen to keep the fire going.

anyone know of a map showing the coal seam in relation to the town and surrounding area?

By: julian

julian — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:13:06 +0000

I read about this place in one of the Bill Bryson books. He visited and had a poke around. Imagine still living there knowing that the earth immediately below you was on fire. Nuts.

By: Catitude

Catitude — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:10:38 +0000

Think of the thousands of miners died around the world, especially in developing countries, when working to extract coal from dangerous underground mines.

Think of the greenhouse emissions from this fire.

This is a terrible, if not sinful and shameful, waste of natural resources and human dereliction.

By: raph

raph — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 02:08:43 +0000

Apparently the fire was set by a guy who buried waste and burned them… without knowing that there was coal below. Quite a scary story anyway.