50 years on, coal seam ablaze underneath Centralia
By Michael Rubinkam / The Associated Press
CENTRALIA, Pa. -- It's an anniversary the few remaining souls who live here won't be celebrating.
Fifty years ago on Sunday, a fire at the town dump ignited an exposed coal seam and still burns today. It set off a chain of events that eventually led to the demolition of nearly every building in Centralia -- a whole community of 1,400 simply gone.
All these decades later, the Centralia fire maintains its grip on the popular imagination, drawing visitors from around the world who come to gawk at twisted, buckled Route 61, at the sulfurous steam rising intermittently from ground that's warm to the touch, at the empty, lonely streets where nature has reclaimed what coal-industry money once built. It's a macabre story that has long provided fodder for books, movies and plays -- the latest one debuting in March at a theater in New York.
Yet to the handful of residents who still occupy Centralia, who keep their houses tidy and their lawns mowed, this borough in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania is no sideshow attraction. It's home, and they'd like to keep it that way.
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http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/state/50-years-on-coal-seam-ablaze-underneath-centralia-637596/
