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This Hellish Underground Fire Has Burned for 100 Years
Jakob Schiller
03.17.15 7:00 am
Wired
http://www.wired.com/2015/03/johnny-haglund-the-earth-is-on-fire/
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Fires rage unimpeded just below the earths surface in Jharia, India,
slowly consuming a vast store of coal and occasionally opening immense
chasms that swallow everything above them. Johnny Haglund documents what
its like living with such an inferno for The Earth is on Fire, which
recently took second place at Pictures of the Year International for
Science and Natural History Picture Story.
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The best explanation is the fires, which started in 1916, are the result
of coal mines that were improperly shut down. Twenty years ago, the earth
opened and destroyed 250 houses in just two hours. Over time the flames
have chewed through 41 million tons of the coal, worth billions of
dollars. Today, some 70 fires are currently burning. People live amongst
smoke and toxic fumes that constantly seep out of the earth, causing
respiratory and skin problems. Haglund experienced the danger and
discomfort while visiting Jharia and the surrounding region last year.
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At the end of every day I had a layer of coal on my clothes and my skin
and sometimes and I often felt like my face was burning, he says. I had
pretty heavy boots, but sometimes just walking around the soles almost
melted off.
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March 10, 2015
6 Famous Ghost Towns and Abandoned Cities
By Evan Andrews
History Lists
http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/
6-famous-ghost-towns-and-abandoned-cities
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A shorter URL for the above link:
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http://tinyurl.com/lof9gvq
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In 1962, a massive fire broke out in an underground coalmine near the town
of Centralia, Pennsylvania. When authorities were unable to extinguish the
blaze, nearly all of the towns 1,100 residents abandoned their homes. The
town remains virtually uninhabited to this day, and experts estimate the
subterranean coal fire may rage for another 250 years.
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Trespass - Exploring Centralia, PA
Posted: 11/21/2014 3:36 pm EST
Updated: 02/02/2015 6:59 pm EST
Michael Hill
Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-hill/
trespass-exploring-centra_b_6197110.html
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A shorter URL for the above link:
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http://tinyurl.com/pq44zlc
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For those who don't know of this place, Centralia is a borough in Columbia
County, PA. which in 1962 had a population of around 1,100 and as of now
has only 10 residents who refuse to leave. It has been stripped of a zip
code, mail does not run, buildings and homes have been demolished and
roads now lead off to nowhere. There are no stores, no schools... nothing.
It is a ghost town with a few exceptions.
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Centralia is a coal mining town, and back in 1962 a fire broke out in one
of the underground mines. It was believed to have started from a landfill,
which they were burning, that was not fully extinguished and the fire
entered into an unsealed opening which lead to the abandoned coal mine
beneath. There have been a few attempts to extinguish it but none even
close to successful, there are no current plans to stop it. The fire is
estimated to have now spread over 400 acres to date and has enough fuel to
continue burning for another 250 or so years in its 8 mile mine.
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snip
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In 1979, a gas station owner, and then town Mayor, was checking the fuel
levels in one of his underground tanks and noticed the gas was hot at
about 172 degrees Fahrenheit - 55 degrees is the ideal temperature for
stored fuel. A few years later a 12 year old boy fell into a 147 foot deep
sinkhole that just suddenly opened up beneath him. As if that wasn't
enough cause for alarm, a section of highway 61 - which led into Centralia
- began to open up and buckle from the heat of the fire, and was then
repaired in 1983. These things combined with the fact that the carbon
monoxide was beginning to have harmful health effects among the locals,
almost all of them decided it was time to get out of there and accepted a
buyout from the government. In 1984, the exodus began, mostly to
neighboring towns of Ashland and Mount Carmel which are still very much
alive and well with everything you'd expect from a normal town. You would
never know anything had happened only a few minutes away.
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Some time later the highway started to open even more, they then decided
it was too expensive and unsafe to repair again. In 1994 that section of
highway 61 was permanently closed and blocked off with mounds of dirt, a
detour was built around the condemned area and now runs in Centralia as
the only highway, all others have been closed and completely bypass the
town.
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snip
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The few remaining houses were in very good shape, they were nice, well
kept and one even had a swimming pool. Only each one was next to a field
of dry, dead grass and bare trees which were planted by the government in
place of where the houses used to be on empty lots. It was strange seeing
these roads go off to nowhere and stop at a empty field, made me think
that the town was being put up instead of taken down. I hear the people
are pretty unapproachable so I didn't bother trying to talk to anyone, but
after I left and posted one of my pics I was told about a crazy old lady
who drives around in a red pickup truck, who tells people she's the police
and makes them delete their photos. I actually remember seeing a person
sitting in a red truck on the side of the road next to a stop sign near
the center of town when I was leaving and wondered what they were doing.
Crazy. I wonder why she didn't say anything to me.
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How an Underground Fire Destroyed an Entire Town
By Ella Morton
June 4 2014 1:53 PM
Slate
http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/06/04/
centralia_a_town_in_pennsylvania_destroyed_by_a_mine_fire.html
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A shorter URL for the above link:
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http://tinyurl.com/ns4qo8t
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In October 2013, the eight remaining residents of the once 2,700-strong
town of Centralia in Pennsylvania won a long court battle over the right
to stay in their homes. The inhabitants of the former mining settlement
are now free to keep living in an overgrown field criss-crossed by cracked
roads that belch carbon monoxide from their crevices.
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Located on a rich seam of anthracite coal, Centralia was settled as a
mining town in the mid-1800s. After reaching its peak population of 2,761
in 1890, Centralia was home to around 1,400 people when the mines began to
close in the 1960s.
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In 1962, something happened that would transform Centralia from a quaint
and lively small town into a bleak and hazardous wasteland: an underground
fire began to burn out of control.
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snip
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A real shocker came in 1981, when the ground tried to swallow Todd
Domboski. The 12-year-old was walking in his backyard when the ground gave
way and he fell eight feet into a smoking sinkhole. Domboski was able to
hold onto tree roots at the sides of the hole and got pulled to safety,
which is just as well: the sinkhole was later found to be about 150 feet
deep and filled with lethal levels of carbon monoxide.
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Following these troubling incidents, the government began claiming
Centralia properties under eminent domain and relocating residents. Th
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Lifestyle | Sun Oct 5, 2014 7:12pm BST
In withered Pennsylvania town, time capsule opens wounds
CENTRALIA Pa.
By David DeKok
Reuters
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/10/05/
us-usa-pennsylvania-fire-idUKKCN0HT0D120141005
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A shorter URL for the above link:
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http://tinyurl.com/pzukj2s
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(Reuters) - The contents of a half-century-old time capsule buried in
Centralia, Pennsylvania, were bound to stir up bitter-sweet memories for
those forced by a still-smoldering underground fire to abandon the town
decades ago.
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But the official unveiling of the artifacts on Saturday is likely to be a
lot more bitter than sweet, even for the people of an old coal mining town
that has seen its share of hard luck.
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Severe water leakage destroyed much of what was inside, especially books,
paper documents and old photos, leading the organizers to schedule the
presentation two years earlier than the 50-year anniversary of its burial,
when it was originally planned.
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"Over 48 years, the stuff was totally ruined," said Ed Lawler, president
of the Centralia chapter of the American Legion, a veterans organization
that now meets in the nearby village of Wilburton.
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The capsule was buried in the yard of the group's old building in
Centralia in 1966, about 200 feet from the coal mine fire which began in
1962 and still burns today, releasing steam into the air.
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"We want to give what's left back to the original donors or their
children," Lawler said.
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Centralia, about 115 miles northwest of Philadelphia, was home to about a
thousand people before Congress decided to fund a $42 million relocation
of the town that began in 1984. It would have cost an estimated $600
million to put out the fire which geologists say could keep burning for
decades, fueled by the large underground coal deposits.
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Today, Centralia has fewer than 10 residents. Of the 400 to 500 buildings,
perhaps five remain.
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As Centralia gradually disappeared, the time capsule's above-ground stone
marker became one of the last reminders of the town that was.
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This Pennsylvania Ghost-town Has Been Burning Since 1962
February 12, 2015
By Jeffrey Rindskopf
First to Know
http://firsttoknow.com/pennsylvania-ghost-town-burning-since-1962/
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Centralia, located in Columbia County, Penn., was founded as Bulls Head in
1860, named after a tavern opened 19 years earlier, when the area was only
a small piece of the Roaring Creek township. Centralia came into its own
in 1854 when a representative of the Locust Mountain Coal and Iron Company
laid out streets and lots for development.
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The city was built on top of a vein of anthracit coal, a rare type of
especially pure coal. Most of the citys residents were employed by this
industry, which still keeps miners in the area working to this day. Within
Centralia itself, however, the mining stopped in the early 1960s when most
of the companies there went out of business.
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snip
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Today, the fire continues unimpeded, and Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection estimates it could continue for another 250
years. The town draws curious tourists each year, walking empty streets
and visiting a hot, empty space once full of grass that vents smoke and
toxic gases from below. Go onto it at your own risk, says a sign welcoming
visitors.
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The town now lacks basic services or a proper police force of its own, but
its eerie legacy looms large.
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Remaining handful of residents can stay in Centralia for the rest of their
lives, settlement says
By John Beauge
Penn Live
October 30, 2013 at 11:36 AM,
updated October 30, 2013 at 9:48 PM
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/
2013/10/centralia_condemnation_fight_e.html
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A shorter URL for the above link:
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http://tinyurl.com/pcsvpqr
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Were very pleased, said Susquehanna Twp. attorney Don Bailey, who
represented seven property owners in a federal lawsuit against the
Columbia County Redevelopment Authority, state Department of Community and
Economic Development and others.
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Notice of the settlement was filed Tuesday in U.S. Middle District Court.
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Were glad we were able to resolve this in an amicable way, said DCED
spokesman Steve Kratz. The seven will receive a total of $218,000 for
their properties, he said.
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All the owners have signed quit claim deeds that will be filed in the
Columbia County recorders office, he said. The deeds include confirmation
that the current owners have a life estate in the property until they die,
he said.
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Centralias population of more than 1,000 in mid-1950s is down to a handful
because a fire that originated in 1962 in a refuse dump in an abandoned
strip mine in adjoining Conyngham Twp., and spread beneath the borough
through an underground coal mine.
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50 years later, the fire under Centralia still burns
By The Associated Press (AP)
May 27, 2012 at 12:11 AM
Penn Live
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/
2012/05/50_years_later_the_fire_under.html
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A shorter URL for the above link:
.
http://tinyurl.com/kuw653e
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After a contentious battle over 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.
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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.
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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.
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"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!"
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Whether it's safe to live there is subject to debate.
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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.
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PHOTOS: Historical photos of Centralia Mine Fire
Morning Call
http://www.mcall.com/photos/
all-centralia-050510-eeo-pictures-photogallery.html
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A shorter URL for the above link:
.
http://tinyurl.com/kks9olk
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Centralia FROM Google Web Search
http://tinyurl.com/kl8pnzr
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Centralia FROM Google Domain Limited Web Search
http://tinyurl.com/og3vphq
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Centralia FROM Google Domain Limited Web Search
http://tinyurl.com/kyeufxu
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Centralia FROM Google Domain Limited Web Search
http://tinyurl.com/nvedbzw
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Centralia FROM Google Scholar
http://tinyurl.com/kw7s5qo
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Centralia FROM Google Books
http://tinyurl.com/m3mve99
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Centralia FROM Google Images
http://tinyurl.com/peuvxrf
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Centralia FROM Google Videos
http://tinyurl.com/oswryty
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Centralia FROM Temple Summon Search
http://tinyurl.com/oswryty
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The complete articles may be read at the URLs provided for each.
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WEBBIB1415
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Temple University
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