A Ghostly Fire: The Borough of Centralia, Pennsylvania
Centralia, Pennsylvania is one of those places where the popular story can easily become more interesting than the history itself, as evidenced by its plight being the basis for the first Silent Hill movie, in an attempt to explain the area fog, more famously a motif of the video game series. Image of Locust Av in Centralia, PA, c. 1960. Unknown photographer, local archives. A town catches fire beneath the ground, a highway buckles and cracks, most of the residents leave, and a handful of people remain. The result is usually described as a ghost town. While Centralia is the most famous example, underground coal fires are not uncommon across the world. The Jharia Coal Field in India, for example, has been burning for over 100 years . Centralia, PA on the Ashland USGS 1947 Topo Map with various Lehigh Valley Railroad lines. PA 61 is labeled as US 122 , which was an intrastate US Highway until 1963. But Centralia was not simply abandoned overnight, and the fire was not a...