Pa. town above mine fire asks US courts for help

hosted ^ | Oct 29 | MICHAEL RUBINKAM

[JoeProBono]

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Residents of a central Pennsylvania coal town decimated by a mine fire have gone to federal court to try to prevent state officials from evicting them....

[JoeProBono]

Centralia: Town On Fire Since 1962 Located in Pennsylvania, United States, Centralia's population has dwindled from over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 12 in 2005 and 9 in 2007, as a result of a 45-year-old mine fire burning beneath the town. In May 1962, the town council hired five members of the volunteer fire company to clean up the town landfill, located in an abandoned strip mine pit next to the Odd Fellows Cemetery. The firemen, as they had in the past, set the dump on fire, let it burn for a time, and then extinguished the fire, or so they thought.

In fact, the fire remained burning in the lower depths of the garbage and eventually spread through a hole in the rock pit into the abandoned coal mines beneath Centralia. Attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful. State-wide attention to the fire began to increase, culminating in 1981 when 12-year-old boy fell into a sinkhole 45 metres deep that suddenly opened beneath his feet. He was saved after his older cousin pulled him from the mouth of the hole before he could plunge to his probable death. The incident brought national attention to Centralia and in 1984 U.S. Congress allocated more than $42 million for relocation efforts. Most of the residents accepted buyout offers and moved to the nearby communities but a handful of occupied homes remain in Centralia today.

[raybbr]

Oh, yeah! I forgot about this one...

[FroggyTheGremlim]

Obama doesn’t care about white Pennsylvanians.

[bmwcyle]

I use to drive through Centralia going to my grandmothers near Pottsville in the 1960’s and 1970’s. I saw homes sink and burn. I saw cars in sink holes on Rt. 61. It was the road we traveled on. People were found dead in their homes from CO2 and CO coming up in their homes. You could see smoke coming up from the ground from the fires.

[JoeProBono]

[ml/nj]

The incident brought national attention to Centralia and in 1984 U.S. Congress allocated more than $42 million for relocation efforts. Most of the residents accepted buyout offers and moved to the nearby communities but a handful of occupied homes remain in Centralia today.

Reagan signed off on this?

ML/NJ

[bmwcyle]

That is the road. I have been past there many times.

[Cheetahcat]

They can not flood the damn thing?

[peyton randolph]

Alot of these people were vastly overpaid for their half a double 80-year-old+ shacks by the feds and took the money to build buy or build houses much nicer and larger. What remains isn’t fit for living.

The big question is what will happen if the coal vein burns down under the nearby Borough of Ashland. Will the feds do another evacuation/buyout? At some point this should be an issue of self-responsibility and private insurance instead of tax dollars being thrown at it.

[kearnyirish2]

A strange story; as I’ve heard it, they re-routed the main road around it, but you can still walk in if you want (can anyone confirm this?). There’s a cemetery there, and a small number of structures standing, but there is a stench and fumes from the fire and numerous warning signs (again, from what I’ve heard from people familiar with it).

[mowowie]

Centralia has always made for interesting reading, Like Pripyat, Times Beach, Love Canal etc....

Wasn't that Chevy Chase, Demi Moore movie loosely based on this town?

[angcat]

Yes you can go hang and visit the place. Lots of people do it.

[mowowie]

Just typed Centralia into Google Earth.
Pretty interesting...

[ml/nj]

The big question is ...

Sorry. But the big question is WTF is the Federal Government even considering taking money from me to buy/bail out property that has become worthless. I don't want it. It isn't Constitutional. If the people involved want charity let them say so, and maybe I'll listen. But I don't think much of armed robbery.

ML/NJ

[JoeProBono]

[Lurker]

Silent Hill

[JoeProBono]

[kearnyirish2]

Do you know how far it is from the Delaware Water Gap (Route 80)?

[kearnyirish2]

That was one movie I just didn’t get...

[kearnyirish2]

“At some point this should be an issue of self-responsibility and private insurance instead of tax dollars being thrown at it.”

What company would insurance the properties? The current owners would be unable to sell, as any buyer would be unable to purchase insurance (which no bank would lend without).