Somewhere in the United States there’s a town with its own zip code, paved streets, and mailboxes. And it has only five residents. They didn’t all move away out of boredom. Since 1962, they’ve been living alongside the underground fire of Centralia, which is still burning today, more than sixty years later. The town is in Pennsylvania, and its story reads like something a horror screenwriter dreamed up.
How the Underground Fire of Centralia Started
The underground fire of Centralia started in the most mundane way imaginable. In May 1962, local firefighters did what they did every year: burned the trash piled up at the municipal dump. The dump, as it happened, sat on top of an old strip mine. The problem was that the dump had a hole nearly five meters wide. That gap led straight down into the tunnel network of an abandoned coal mine beneath the town. The flames slipped through that gap and reached a coal seam. However, nobody has managed to put them out since.
Officials tried everything: digging firebreaks and flooding the tunnels. They also drilled boreholes to pump in cement and sand, hoping to smother the fire. None of it worked. Bituminous coal burns slowly and needs very little oxygen. So, the fire simply kept creeping underground, mile after mile, year after year.
When the Ground Started Opening Up
For nearly two decades, Centralia carried on more or less normally: the fire was a problem, but a manageable one. That changed in 1981. That year, a 12-year-old boy nearly died. He fell into a sinkhole more than 45 meters deep that suddenly opened in his backyard, caused by the heat and gases from the fire below. Luckily, he survived by grabbing onto a tree root. The incident made national headlines and confirmed what was already becoming obvious. The town was releasing dangerous levels of carbon monoxide, and the asphalt was cracking and smoking in the dead of winter. Some basements, in fact, were registering oven-like temperatures.
The federal government eventually spent around $42 million relocating residents. Moreover, by the late 1980s, more than a thousand people had accepted buyouts. In total, over 500 buildings were demolished. Centralia’s zip code was officially retired in 2002, even though the town, technically, still exists.
The Last Residents, and the Highway That Vanished Underground
Not everyone left. A small group of holdouts refused to abandon their homes. They reached a legal agreement with the state of Pennsylvania: they could stay for the rest of their lives, but once they passed away, their properties would revert to the government. According to the latest figures, only about five people still live there.
Another odd chapter is the so-called “Graffiti Highway.” It’s a stretch of the old Route 61. It was closed to traffic in 1993 because of the fire’s cracks and smoke. Over the years, the highway filled up with graffiti from visitors around the world. So, it became an unofficial tourist attraction. However, in 2020, crowds surged during the pandemic. Therefore, authorities had it buried under tons of soil to discourage visitors.
Experts estimate that the underground fire of Centralia has enough fuel to keep burning for another 100 years, maybe longer. Meanwhile, underneath that hill in Pennsylvania, the very same fire that started with a routine trash burn at the town dump is still, very slowly, eating its way through the coal. Curious about other corners of the planet with equally extreme rules? Then don’t miss the story of Dying in Longyearbyen, the town that won’t allow it.
You can read more about Centralia’s history and current state in this Atlas Obscura feature.