WEBVTT - Will the Fires That Made Centralia a Ghost Town Ever Go Out?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff Lauren Vogel bam here. The smallest municipality in Pennsylvania

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<v Speaker 1>is Centralia, a former mining community located about two hours

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<v Speaker 1>northwest of Philadelphia. Records tell us it had one thousand,

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<v Speaker 1>four hundred and thirty five residents in the year nineteen sixty. Today,

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<v Speaker 1>fewer than ten people still live there. The US Postal

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<v Speaker 1>Service revoked Centralia's zip code in two thousand two, and

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<v Speaker 1>the local portion of State Route sixty one was permanently

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<v Speaker 1>closed off nine years before that. We can't blame the

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<v Speaker 1>area's decline on the usual socioeconomics suspects. Its problems run deeper, literally,

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<v Speaker 1>since at least nineteen sixty two, a coal seam fire

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<v Speaker 1>has been smoldering right below the town. Yes, in Centralia,

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<v Speaker 1>the earth has been smoking and ash has been raining

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<v Speaker 1>down for over fifty years. No one knows exactly how

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<v Speaker 1>the coal fire got started, but whatever set the thing off,

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<v Speaker 1>this long lived blaze isn't some kind of one off fluke.

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<v Speaker 1>Naturally occurring coal deposits are called seams in the mining industry,

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<v Speaker 1>and wherever such veins occur, whole seam fires like the

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<v Speaker 1>one under Centralia may break out and commonly do. China's

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<v Speaker 1>three thousand mile or five thousand kilometer coal mining belt

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<v Speaker 1>is notorious for its seam fires. So is a town

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<v Speaker 1>in India where fires have claimed about forty one million

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<v Speaker 1>tons of coal since nineteen eighteen. We spoke via email

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<v Speaker 1>with a Newtma Prakash, a geologist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

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<v Speaker 1>She said the issue is more prevalent in areas where

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<v Speaker 1>coal was extracted in the past with limited efforts to

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<v Speaker 1>ensure that the whole left from the extraction was filled up.

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<v Speaker 1>She explained that minds that don't provide structural support to

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<v Speaker 1>keep ground from collapsing likewise risk seam fire outbreaks. Granted,

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<v Speaker 1>humans aren't always responsible though. Down in New South Wales, Australia,

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<v Speaker 1>there's a famous coal seam that's been burning for six

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<v Speaker 1>thousand years straight. Scientists think it was first ignited by

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<v Speaker 1>an ancient brush fire or lightning strike. The coal doesn't

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<v Speaker 1>need much encouragement to catch fire. Under the right circumstances,

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<v Speaker 1>the material can actually light itself ablaze through spontaneous combustion.

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<v Speaker 1>We also spoke via email with research geologist Alan Colker

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<v Speaker 1>He explained the decomposition of pyrite present in coal produces heat,

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<v Speaker 1>and in some cases this self heating can start the

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<v Speaker 1>coal on fire. This is a problem even where coal

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<v Speaker 1>is transported long distances and ships. By most accounts, Centralia's

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<v Speaker 1>Great Fire began at a dump near the local Odd

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<v Speaker 1>Fellows Cemetery on nineteen sixty two. This landfill was intentionally

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<v Speaker 1>set ablaze with six volunteer firefighters standing by. It was

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<v Speaker 1>all part of a yearly clean up effort by the

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<v Speaker 1>local government. Controlled ns were popular garbage disposal technique back then,

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<v Speaker 1>but things didn't always go according to plan. Perhaps this

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<v Speaker 1>fire ran deeper into the trash than anybody realized. If so,

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<v Speaker 1>it could have spread through the refuse and entered the

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<v Speaker 1>nearest coal mine pit with no one being the wiser.

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<v Speaker 1>Then again, maybe the town government had nothing to do

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<v Speaker 1>with it. Some have argued that a different garbage fire

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<v Speaker 1>at the same site, a lit by an unidentified truck driver,

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<v Speaker 1>is what really sealed Centralia's fate. Another less popular theory

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<v Speaker 1>claims that the coal seam fire started all the way

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<v Speaker 1>back in the Great Depression and went unextinguished for decades

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<v Speaker 1>before the nineteen sixties gave it a new lease on life. Regardless,

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<v Speaker 1>the inferno made itself right at home, sweeping through mine

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<v Speaker 1>tunnels and coal seams. Flames descended as far as three

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<v Speaker 1>hundred feet that's ninety below the ground, sometimes nearing temperatures

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<v Speaker 1>of one thousand, three hundred and fifty degrees fahrenheit or

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<v Speaker 1>seven thirty celsius. According to an investigation, in passageways underlying

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<v Speaker 1>some four hundred acres or a hundred and sixty hectares

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<v Speaker 1>of land had been touched by the blaze at some

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<v Speaker 1>time or other. Kolker said uncontrolled coal fires have all

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<v Speaker 1>the potential environmental impacts of burning coal for power generation,

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<v Speaker 1>with none of the benefits. In addition to emitting carbon dioxide,

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<v Speaker 1>trace metals such as mercury and harmful fine particles are omitted.

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<v Speaker 1>Per Cash noted that methane and sulfur dioxide are also

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<v Speaker 1>common and so distinctive that just talking about these fires

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<v Speaker 1>virtually floods her with memories of the scent. To this day,

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<v Speaker 1>smoke rises from the earth through fissures around Centralia. Meanwhile,

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<v Speaker 1>the terrain has become perilously unstable over time. Percash said

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<v Speaker 1>these fires are dangerous as land can suddenly collapse or

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<v Speaker 1>sink as the fire just eats up the ground underneath.

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<v Speaker 1>Such collapses can damage houses, roads, train tracks, et cetera.

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<v Speaker 1>That's why Pennsylvania closed off four thousand feet or about

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<v Speaker 1>one thousand, two hundred meters of root sixty one back in.

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<v Speaker 1>Subterranean pillars that held up the pavement were destroyed or

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<v Speaker 1>weakened by the flames, making the roadway totally unsuitable for motorists.

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<v Speaker 1>So will Centralia's fire ever burn out. Extinguishing efforts so

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<v Speaker 1>far haven't paid off. Between nineteen sixty two and nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>eighty two, assorted government agencies spent seven million dollars fighting

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<v Speaker 1>the Centralia coal fire. Openings were sealed, trenches were dug,

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<v Speaker 1>and the mines were stuffed with non combustible ashes, sands

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<v Speaker 1>and crushed rocks, but nothing worked. Nearly all of Centralia's

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<v Speaker 1>former residents are long gone. Many took advantage of a

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<v Speaker 1>forty two million dollar taxpayer funded relocation initiative, which saw

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<v Speaker 1>five hundred buildings destroyed. The final holdouts have been granted

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<v Speaker 1>permission to spend the rest of their lives in the town,

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<v Speaker 1>as per settlement with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. According to

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<v Speaker 1>the state's Department of Environmental Protection, the fire might keep

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<v Speaker 1>on raging for over a hundred years yet to come.

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<v Speaker 1>But as bad as they can get, coal seam fires

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<v Speaker 1>aren't invincible, Prakash said. Good policies on mining safety and

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<v Speaker 1>reclamation go a long way as preventative measure. If a

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<v Speaker 1>fire does start, taking quick action to contain it by

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<v Speaker 1>isolating the fire, dousing the fire, cooling the area, and

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<v Speaker 1>continued monitoring to ensure that the fire does not start

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<v Speaker 1>again are important measures. Centralia's hellish effect made it part

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<v Speaker 1>of the inspiration for the two thousand six horror film

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<v Speaker 1>Silent Hill, the departure from the video game series that

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<v Speaker 1>it was adapted from, and over the past thirty odd years,

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<v Speaker 1>the town Centralia, not Silent Hill, has become an unlikely

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<v Speaker 1>tourist destination. One former attraction was the abandoned stretch of

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<v Speaker 1>Root sixty one. Dubbed the Graffiti Highway. It attracted masses

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<v Speaker 1>of street artists who added a rainbow of cartoons and

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<v Speaker 1>signatures to the pavement. However, in twenty twenty, the corporation

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<v Speaker 1>that the undrivable road had it covered up with piles

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<v Speaker 1>of dirt, to dissuade visitors from swinging by during the

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<v Speaker 1>COVID nineteen pandemic. Today's episode was written by Mark Mancini

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<v Speaker 1>and produced by Tyler Clay. For more on this and

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<v Speaker 1>lots of other burning topics, visit how stuff works dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts

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