(A motorist in 2004 drives among the smoldering remains of land near Route 61 in Centralia, Pa. AP file photo) Posted on 05/26/2012 9:18:07 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
After 50 years, fire still burns under Pa. town
(A motorist in 2004 drives among the smoldering remains of land near Route 61 in Centralia, Pa. AP file photo)
Fifty years ago Sunday, a fire at the town dump ignited an exposed coal seam, setting off a chain of events that eventually led to the demolition of nearly every building in Centralia — a whole community of 1,400 simply gone.
All these decades later, the Centralia fire still burns. It also maintains its grip on the popular imagination, drawing visitors from around the world who come to gawk at twisted, buckled Route 61, at the sulfurous steam rising intermittently from ground that's warm to the touch, at the empty, lonely streets where nature has reclaimed what coal-industry money once built.
It's a macabre story that has long provided fodder for books, movies and plays — the latest one debuting in March at a theater in New York.
Yet to the handful of residents who still occupy Centralia, who keep their houses tidy and their lawns mowed, this borough in the mountains of northeast Pennsylvania is no sideshow attraction. It's home, and they'd like to keep it that way.
"That's all anybody wanted from day one," said Tom Hynoski, who's among the plaintiffs in a federal civil rights lawsuit aimed at blocking the state of Pennsylvania from evicting them.
Centralia was already a coal-mining town in decline when the fire department set the town's landfill ablaze on May 27, 1962, in an ill-fated attempt to tidy up for Memorial Day.
The fire wound up igniting the coal outcropping and, through the years, spread to the vast network of mines beneath homes and businesses, threatening residents with poisonous gases and dangerous sinkholes.
After a contentious battle about the future of the town, the side that wanted to evacuate won out. By the end of the 1980s, more than 1,000 people had moved and 500 structures demolished under a $42 million federal relocation program.
But some holdouts refused to go — even after their houses were seized through eminent domain in the early 1990s. They said the fire posed little danger to their part of town, accused government officials and mining companies of a plot to grab the rights to billions of dollars' worth of anthracite coal, and vowed to stay put.
After years of letting them be, state officials decided a few years ago to take possession of the homes. The state Department of Community and Economic Development said Friday it's in negotiations with one of the five remaining homeowners; the others are continuing to resist, pleading their case in federal court.
Residents say the state has better things to spend its money on. A handwritten sign along the road blasts Gov. Tom Corbett, the latest chief executive to inherit a mess that goes back decades.
"You and your staff are making budget cuts everywhere," the sign says. "How can you allow (the state) to waste money trying to force these residents out of their homes? These people want to pay their taxes and be left alone and live where they choose!"
Whether it's safe to live there is subject to debate.
Tim Altares, a geologist with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said that while temperatures in monitoring boreholes are down — possibly indicating the fire has followed the coal seam deeper underground — the blaze still poses a threat because it has the potential to open up new paths for deadly gases to reach the remaining homes.
"It's very difficult to quantify the threat, but the major threat would be infiltration of the fire gases into the confined space of a residential living area. That was true from the very beginning, and will remain true even after the fire moves out of the area," Alteres said.
Nonsense, say residents who point out they've lived for decades without incident.
Carl Womer, 88, whose late wife, Helen, was the leader of a faction that fiercely resisted the government buyout, disagrees the fire poses any threat.
"What mine fire?" Womer asked dismissively as he hosed down his front porch, preparing, he said, for a Memorial Day picnic. "If you go up and see a fire, you come back and tell me."
Author and journalist David DeKok, who's been writing about Centralia for more than 30 years, said that while he believes Womer's house is too close to the fire to safely live there, Hynoski and his neighbors are far enough away.
"I don't think there's any great public safety problem in letting those people stay there," said DeKok, author of "Fire Underground," a book on the town.
Many former residents, meanwhile, prefer to talk about the good times, their nostalgia taking on a decidedly golden hue.
"I loved it. I always liked Centralia from the time I was old enough to understand what it was," said Mary Chapman, 72, who left in 1986 but returns once a month to the social club at the Centralia fire company.
"If you came out of your house and you couldn't get your car started, the neighbor would come out and he'd help you. You didn't even have to ask," Chapman continued. "Of course the neighbors knew your business, but they also were there to help you, too."
A local sign warning of the underground fire. The sign no longer stands.
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church on North Paxton Street, Centralia, PA. The church is on a hillside overlooking Centralia, a town nearly abandoned due to an underground coal seam fire.
The ruined section of Route 61, Centralia
Related YouTube videos about Centralia, PA ...
2009-2011 - Centralia, PA., - Abandoned, on Fire, and still Smoking Centralia, Pa., Trips.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtVHmjNJvk4&feature=player_embedded
The Real Silent Hill - Centralia PA Mine Fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XTDAJMXZQKo
ping
Great story... I have seen it firsthand. Yes... there is actual steam rising from the ground. My parents were born and raised nearby. The weird part of mining towns, IMHO, is the houses in many areas sink (the mines are underneath). It is not uncommon to see the old mining homes tilt or be sunken several feet. I may be wrong, DogByte... but I thought I was forwarded an article (from a cousin who lives near that town) that the last resident finally left Centralia? Very cool article....
How long before the coal fires reach China?
I wonder where the fire is getting oxygen from.
Obviously you would know better than me if there are still any remaining residents in Centralia since you have roots to the area. I only quoted the original news article.
I have never been to the area ... but it holds a certain fascination for me. I have visited many “ghost towns” out here in my area of Southern California ... abandoned mining towns, lost towns along the old Route 66, etc.
I also find the whole story of Centralia very ironic; the fire was apparently started by the fire department at the behest of the local city council. This is yet another reminder that government (at all levels) tends to create more problems than it solves.
I have some second cousins once removed (second cousins of my father, with whom he kept up) whom I visited in Centralia as a lad before it was evacuated.
It was strange, you kicked a stone and sulphurous steam would come out of the ground. The stone would have sulphur crystals on the underside.
Here is another weblink of interest re: Centralia PA ...
If you scroll down, you can see some pictures from the local cemetery showing some of the tombs and gravestones buckling (as if there are sinkholes developing beneath them?)
I don’t know if this is just from neglect, but it seems plausible that the mines could be underneath areas of the cemetery causing the depressions and sinking of the gravesites.
It truly is a wonder in some aspects. I mean it has been burning for years and years. Makes you wonder how it all will end. Many townsfolk predicted (years ago) that it will eventually just swallow the town and open up. As a little kid.. it scared the heck out of you. It held images of what you were told hell looked like... Not to be melodramatic but the town does have a smell to it. Not sulphur... something more earthy.
Yikes, the dead will think they’ve gone to the bad place.
Another photo of the abandoned Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Centralia
Back in the day... this whole area was coal mining. A small town nearby is called Girardville (also known as “gun-town” during the day). It was where the Molly Maguires had their issues with the coal mine owners. Hollywood made a movie about it... somewhat accurate but leaves out a lot. Anyway, many of the towns were built literally above the mines and it is not uncommon to be driving around and see a sunken type house. Growing up in the suburbs of D.C., that entire area was fascinating to me as a kid. Where else could you find coal lying around EVERYWHERE. It literally pushes through the soil. Pretty cool stuff. I hope one day you can make a trip and see it!
Old graveyards require maintenance, I’ve got three, one active since Reconstruction and two older and inactive. The graves themselves settle, patricularly if there’s no vault. Headstones get tilted due to moisture and drought, plus the freeze thaw cycle works them loose. I’ve accidentally put my foot up to the knee in an old sunken grave before, this one was back in the woods and the road had passed it by, many many decades ago. We’ve got it shaped up now, but it’s not easy to get back in there.
So, I doubt the coal seam fire caused this. It’s simple neglect. Graveyards go down without attention just like everything manmade does.
"You and your staff are making budget cuts everywhere," the sign says. "How can you allow (the state) to waste money trying to force these residents out of their homes? These people want to pay their taxes and be left alone and live where they choose!"
I have to agree but I am sure for different reasons than the town residents.
What business does the state have using taxpayer funds buying dangerous property? What business doe the state have spending taxpayer funds forcing citizens to sell property they do not want to sell?
I agree with the sentiment above the states have precious little money laying around that they can afford to spend it willy-nilly on property that can not be used for any useful purpose. And if they do it would be better to cut taxes so that the people can put those funds to their own purposes.
Bush’s fault ,, no, wait, ...
As an old cemetery hunter, my take is that this was vandalism and has nothing to do with the fire. Note that there's plenty of snow on the ground.
Same article with comments here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2888253/posts
We can call the Company Coalyndra.
“So, if somebody wants to build a coal plant, they can — it’s just that it will bankrupt them, because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.” - Barack Hussein Obama, January 2008
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/11/02/obama-well-bankrupt-any-new-coal-plants/
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