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The UK political system, my mixtape, the third example—these are all things that are on
fire.
Also on fire is the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, or at least the ground under it.
The story of Centralia begins pretty identically to that of any other mid-Atlantic coal town.
Some rich guy buys land, finds coal, mines coal, town starts to exist, town starts to
get cool with saloons and hotels and general stores, there’s a heyday, and then town’s
cool factor diminishes as coal demand decreases.
Basically, by the 1960’s, all the mines had closed and the population had decreased
from it’s peak of 2,800 in 1890 to 1,400.
Because they hadn’t yet invented the environment, when it came to doing the annual landfill
cleanup in May 1962, it was decided to just burn the trash.
So, they hired five firemen to set fire to the fill then fight the firemen-set fire until
it became not a fire.
It turns out, though, that astonishingly, in the coal mining town there was a coal mine
under the landfill and it also turned out that there was an open mineshaft under the
vast pile of trash and it also turns out that coal burns.
Surprise, surprise, the fire spread underground into the mine.
That was stupid.
While this theory is the predominant one, there are other competing theories for how
the fire started such as via a non fireman induced fill fire or that it wasn’t even
started in 1962—that it was just the continuation of a coal fire from decades earlier.
You see, there are three main factors leading to the longevity of coal fires—coal burns
slowly, coal is underground, and where there’s coal there’s a lot of coal.
Coal fires are therefore quite common and while some can last for a few months and look
like this, others can last a few millennia and look like this.
In the genre of Australian things that can kill you, this coal fire in New South Wales,
Australia has actively burned underground for about 6,000 years.
It advances at a steady pace of three feet or one meter per year as it destroys the land
above it which would be a bigger issue if anyone lived here.
But oh wait, people did live in Centralia, Pennsylvania and so this coal fire was a massive
issue!
Obviously, as soon as it ignited Centralia and Pennsylvania began a massive operation
to extinguish the fire before its spread threatened human life or property.
Fire departments from across the state all amassed upon Centralia in the days… oh,
actually, no, sorry, I’m re-reading my notes.
In response, the town of Centralia sent a letter to the Lehigh Valley Coal Company,
who owned the mine, informing them of the fire.
Hmm.
Over the next few years they tried a few different methods at stopping the fire including digging
trenches and pumping water underground but nothing worked.
By 1972 the fire had grown to this immense size.
Oh, nope, zoom in—to this immense size.
Yeah, these fires really don’t spread very fast.
Nonetheless, as it inched closer to the populated part of town the effects grew as land became
inhospitable.
The fire would make the land unstable, open up holes to the underworld, and emit carbon
monoxide which has the effect of making humans dead.
By 1984, 22 years after it started, the underground fire grew to a size where it could no longer
be ignored.
The federal government allocated $42 million to buy all the houses in the town so the residents
could move away and so they did.
While 1,017 people lived in the town in 1980, only 63 remained by 1990.
These 63 that remained refused to leave with the government’s offer to buy their homes
so the government invoked eminent domain to take ownership of their homes by force.
While the government now owned the houses, the residents still refused to leave and the
government eventually gave up on trying to evict them since it was bad for PR.
The only upside of this was that, since the government now technically owned their houses,
the residents didn’t have to pay property tax or mortgages.
Now you know the one easy step for living for free.
Eventually the government got back into the eviction mission and, by 2013, only seven
of the town’s most stubborn residents remained.
The government agreed to let them live the rest of their lives in Centralia and, in exchange,
the houses would be turned over to the government upon their deaths.
This town that was once home to thousands now only has five houses, two churches, a
cemetery, and a municipal building.
The only real sign of the fire is the gasses rising from the barren ground but soon, the
fire will likely start to threaten the nearby towns of Girardville, Ashland, and Aristes
as it continues advancing slowly year by year.
Obviously the Centralia story is not smart so if you want to raise awareness for anti-stupidity
you should set up a website at maybedontsettrashonfireoveracoalmineandthenforgettoputitout.com.
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