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ON MAY 27TH, 1962, OFFICIALS IN CENTRALIA, PA TRIED TO CLEAN THEIR
LANDFILLS BY SETTING A FIRE. THE CENTRALIA MINE FIRE HAS RAGED EVER
SINCE.
Here at Ripley’s, we love to remind our readers of weird historical
events. Whether it’s a river of molasses in Boston or a freak plane
crash into the Empire State Building, we want to make sure you’ve heard
of it.
On May 27, 1962, the people of Centralia, Pennsylvania put into motion a
course of action that would have ramifications that would continue to be
felt to this day.
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It was a Sunday. The citizens of Centralia were getting ready for their
Memorial Day festivities to take place a day later. But there was a
problem they still hadn’t dealt with: Clean up of a landfill before the
celebration.
The city council had met earlier that month to discuss the best way to
go about cleaning up the 300-foot wide, 75-foot long pit, and they had
decided on fire. This isn’t surprising; burning trash was a common
practice then.
The only problem is that Centralia had been a major coal mining area in
the past, and the landfill was located on top of an old coal mine.
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They set the fire on May 25th. Using hoses, they sprayed the flames to
keep the fire under control, and they waited for the smoldering trash to
burn itself out. Little did they know they’d be waiting for 54 years.
EXTINGUISHING EFFORTS
The fire latched onto an old coal seam from the mine and slowly spread
throughout the mines under the city.
Even though the visible flames were doused throughout the day on the
25th, more fires were spotted on May 29th. This pattern of putting out
fires and finding them sprouting up again days later would continue for
weeks. And when there weren’t visible fires, residents complained about
the constant smell of smoldering trash and coal.
Authorities tried for years to extinguish the fire. They pumped water
into the mines often. They covered the surface with clay, seek to
smother the blaze. They pumped a slurry of ash, water, and rocks into
the mine, but nothing worked.
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Eventually, they had no choice but to give up, and the city was
condemned.
The Centralia mine fire has led to the city having to be abandoned.
Families were relocated to neighboring towns. As of 2013, there were
only seven residents allowed to remain in the city.
The surface of the streets is no longer hot like they were since the
fire has moved down deeper into the earth. But smoke can still be found
creeping out of the ground in places. The ground has been so weakened by
half a century of fire that a sinkhole can open anywhere at any moment.
Portions of Route 61 had to be closed and redirected since it’s not safe
to drive. And since coal produces deadly carbon monoxide, the air isn’t
safe to breathe in certain areas.
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Mine fires are burning on every continent except Antartica. But not all
of them result in the ghost town outcome that’s happened to Centralia.
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