The Forever Burning Town
 

Wild story....

I just watched this on the History Channel and thought I'd share. Anyway, in 1962 the town of Centralia, PA was burning their garbage dump located next to an old coal mine shaft. It just so happens the mine cought fire and has been burning ever since! Despite the topic title, the fire will eventually go out,,,, in a hundred years or so!

I never knew something like this could even happen but it makes sense now. Theirs lots of fuel, AKA coal, up in em hills and with a little bit of oxygen, you've got an unstoppable fire. They made many attempts over the years to stop the fire but were unsuccessful.

The town has since been purchased by the federal government due to the exposure to carbon monoxide and other gasses seeping from the ground into homes yet a few dozen people still live there. (At least heating your home in the winter is cheap! :D) Smoke billows from the ground in many places, grass does not grow and you can boil water right on the soil.

Weird huh!

This may be old news to some folks but I never even imagined something like this could happen.

Still don't believe it?
Here's the link... http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/the-story.htm

Yep! Quite interesting, and sad at the same time. I've seen that documentary twice, the first time was about 2-3 years ago, and the latest time was in the last 6 months or so.

I've heard of it. A similar thing occurred back home in South Africa where an underground coal mine caught fire. They have never been able to put it out and some areas are uninhabitable. Every now and again a new hot spot appears on the surface and starts burning. Kind of weired.

edit. Here's an interesting link on coal fires.

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Coal_fires

- Peter.

A friend who grew up close to it just told me about it. It must be a huge health hazard but still some people refuse to leave. Like to visit it one day and take some pictures.

I came across it on wikipedia a few months ago, very interesting story! May have to take a road trip up there sometime.

Couldn't they hook up some kind of power generation unit to all of this heat? Sterling engine? Something??

You'd think. With all that heat output for such a long duration I'd imagine is could be transformed into some sort of useful energy. I know if I lived there, which I wouldn't. I'd bury some lines underground to supply me with hot water and heat during the winter. Come to think about it... I bet they get hot water from the tap, like it or not. :D

It's a sad situation but really fascinating at the same time.

yah, I was watching that to. That is the weirdest thing i have ever heard of. You would think that the fire would run out of oxygen and go out. And all that money they put into trying to put it out did absolutely nothing. That was pretty cool when the guy pored some water on the ground and it boiled off.

I went there a couple years ago. It's strange seeing a whole town of streets, curbs, and driveway aprons - but no houses. A few homes survived, but most of the structures burned down or fell due to neglect. Every few hundred feet, there is an active fire hole with flames and smoke shooting out. In other areas, the ground is very warm to the touch. I didn't want to stay there for too long.

Didn't they have peat fires like that in Europe?

I've read about that before, too. I'd love to go and see it first-hand. I'm assuming that's in Western PA?

More eastern. It's northwest of Allentown and Reading, off I81. You have to take a few winding little roads to get there which is typical of little PA towns.

if the government purchased the town I'll bet their up to something....

Area 52.
How are you.;)