Fire Underground - the Centralia Mine Fire (1 Viewer)

[Combat]

By David DeKok. This is a fascinating story about the town of Centralia, PA. A coal mine fire started in 1962 forced the evacuation of the town in the 80's. The fire will continue to burn for centuries "hotter than the planet Mercury, its atmosphere as poisonous as Saturn's. At the heart of the fire, temperatures easily exceeded 1,000 degrees".

http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/the-story.htm

 

[Mitch]

Sounds like something straight out of holywood. Remarkable
Mitch

By David DeKok. This is a fascinating story about the town of Centralia, PA. A coal mine fire started in 1962 forced the evacuation of the town in the 80's. The fire will continue to burn for centuries "hotter than the planet Mercury, its atmosphere as poisonous as Saturn's. At the heart of the fire, temperatures easily exceeded 1,000 degrees".

http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/the-story.htm

 

[lancer]

Saw a couple of reports on this somewhere. Really quite a story. -- Al

 

[OzDigger]

We have one in Australia (Burning Mountain) that has been burning for over 6,000 years. No one is sure how it started, maybe an Aboriginal decided he wanted his Possum extra crispy.

 

[Rob]

Fascinating story, I thought it sounded familiar to me so I looked it up on Wiki,and it says there that Bill Bryson visited the town and wrote about it in 'A walk in the woods', very enjoyable book.

Rob

 

[Combat]

I drove through Centralia a couple weeks ago. Surprised to find a lot of tourists milling about even though there really is nothing left to see. Even the street signs are gone. You wouldn't know the place ever existed except for the crumbling sidewalks. In the 1980's the federal government offered to buy anyone out who wanted to leave the town. Most people accepted and left. Their properties were then destroyed. However, a few people stayed on. Eventually the state of PA, concerned about the safety of the residents, took over all the remaining properties via eminent domain, but did not force anyone to leave. So a couple houses remain and are occupied in violation of the law. It's an interesting situation not to mention the possibility of falling through the ground at any moment into a firey abyss.

Before and after picture:

 

[OzDigger]

Would make a good movie set.

 

[Combat]

A couple pictures of the closed section of RT 61. The road was closed about 20 years ago when the fire reached it. This is end of the world type stuff on a micro level. A man made situation with no realistic way to ever put the fire out. In about 200 years it will reach Mt. Carmel, PA.