The Centralia Mine Fire: How a Pennsylvania Town Burned for Over 60 Years

The Centralia mine fire is an underground coal seam fire that has burned continuously beneath Centralia, Pennsylvania since May 1962. Ignited in an abandoned mine beneath the town's landfill, the fire spread through a vast network of old anthracite coal tunnels, releasing toxic carbon monoxide and causing sinkholes that eventually forced nearly all of Centralia's 1,000-plus residents to abandon their homes. Today, the town is essentially a ghost town, with a population of fewer than five people and streets cracked by subsidence and venting steam.

What Caused the Centralia Mine Fire?

The fire's precise origin is disputed, but the most widely accepted explanation is that on May 27, 1962, the Centralia Borough Council authorised workers to burn refuse in an old strip-mine pit adjacent to the Odd Fellows Cemetery — a common waste-disposal practice at the time. The fire was not fully extinguished and ignited an exposed vein of anthracite coal. Centralia sits atop the Mammoth Coal Vein, part of the massive anthracite belt of eastern Pennsylvania, and the abandoned mine workings beneath the town created an ideal oxygen-rich channel for the fire to travel. Early suppression attempts in 1962 failed because crews could not locate the fire's leading edge underground. A 1969 state excavation project was halted due to cost overruns, sealing the fire's fate.

How Did the Fire Force Residents to Evacuate?

For nearly two decades, residents endured rising ground temperatures and occasional gas odours without a full government response. The crisis reached a turning point on February 14, 1981, when 12-year-old Todd Domboski fell into a sinkhole that suddenly opened in his backyard on Locust Avenue. He survived by clinging to tree roots, but gas readings at the site showed carbon monoxide at lethal levels. National media coverage followed, and Congress allocated $42 million in 1984 for voluntary relocation. By 1992, Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey invoked eminent domain to condemn all properties in the borough. The population, which had stood at roughly 1,100 in 1980, collapsed to just 63 by 1990 and has since dwindled to single digits. The U.S. Postal Service revoked Centralia's ZIP code, 17927, in 2002.

What Does Centralia Look Like Today — and When Will the Fire Go Out?

Centralia today is an eerie landscape of cracked asphalt, overgrown lots, and steam venting from fissures in the earth. Route 61, once the main highway through town, was closed in 1993 after it buckled and cracked beyond repair; the abandoned stretch became a destination for graffiti artists and curious visitors. A handful of residents who refused relocation won a legal settlement in 1992 allowing them to remain for life. Geologists estimate the coal seam holds enough fuel to sustain the fire for another 250 years. Centralia is widely believed to have inspired the fictional town of Silent Hill in the 2006 horror film and the 1999 video game series of the same name.