3/24/2023 0 Comments Road tripper rescued desert![]() The few structures that remain stand in disrepair. Today, the streets that once ran between rows of working-class homes now crisscross a barren smoky field. As conditions worsened, most of the residents accepted the deal moving to the nearby towns of Ashland and Mount Carmel and leaving the 600 homes and businesses the government now owned to be razed to the ground. According to engineers, the only hope of halting the fire’s advance would be to dig a $660 million dollar trench three quarters of a mile long and four-hundred-and-fifty feet deep.īy 1984 cash strapped officials gave up hopes of containment and, after considerable debate, offered to purchase the homes of anyone who wished to leave. However, the raging fires seemed only to feed on the fresh supply of oxygen sucked down through the watch-holes and quickly outpaced the construction of the ditch.īy 1983, the fire had eaten up at least 200 acres of land. Once the fire’s course was clear, they began to carve a massive ditch across its path. Plans to flood the mines were abandoned when it was realized how honeycombed and interconnected the decade old coal mines had become.įinally, federal geologists stepped in and drilled hundreds of watch-holes around town to track the direction of the fire. However, the ash became just another fuel for then now 1,000☏ blaze. They punched holes in the ground and funneled fly-ash into into the mine to suffocate the flames. Firefighters dug a perimeter, but the fire scorched past their ditches even as digging began. After all, billions of dollars worth of un-mined coal remained beneath the town. In the beginning, officials sided with those that pleaded for containment. A Molotov cocktail was thrown through the window of one residence. Death-threats, slashed tires, fistfights at public meetings…all became commonplace. Meanwhile, younger families-and those with children-were far more anxious about the risks of carbon monoxide exposure and organized a letter writing campaign, urging officials to orchestrate a mass relocation.Īs the fires roiled beneath the earth, the conflict on the surface rose to a fever pitch. Many older residents - those that had spent their entire lives in Centralia - felt adamant about staying in their homes and petitioned officials to step up efforts to contain the fire. ![]() Soon, fissures would spread through the community as well. Fissures spread across the local interstate, spewing clouds of acrid smoke and putrid gases. Fumes bubbled out of the little cemetery on the hill, while caskets-some believed-broke loose and tumbled down into the smoldering caverns below. ![]() Surface temperatures rose to an astonishing 626☏. People began fainting inside their homes, due to the rising carbon monoxide levels. Nevertheless, as the fires ate through more and more of the underground labyrinth of abandoned mine shafts, the fate of this little mining community began to take an ominous turn. Several residents had even moved into the area well after the fires began on word that the fires were moving away or petering out. However, coal fires are a surprisingly common feature of mining communities, and prior to the nearly fatal Valentine’s Day incident, no one worried too much over the Centralia coal fire. ![]() Forty-six years later, the fire still burns and-except for a few crumbling buildings and ten or twelve tenacious residents-the town is all but gone.īy 1981, locals were well aware of the fires. Initial attempts to extinguish the fire failed, and the little town of Centralia has perched precariously atop a roiling subterranean inferno ever since. Eventually, some of this ash tumbled into a forgotten mining tunnel and ignited the sprawling coal beds that run beneath this small Pennsylvanian mining town. The fire is commonly believed to have started in 1962, when glowing cinders from a trash fire slowly smoldered down through the ancient layers of refuse in the local dump. The Valentine’s Day Sinkhole was the result of a massive underground fire that had been brewing beneath the town of Centralia longer than Todd had been alive. Eventually, a cousin heard Todd's cries for help, found him, and dragged him to safety. Dangling precariously over a 150 foot drop into darkness, Todd felt the woosh of air rushing past him as it was sucked deep into the sinkhole. Miraculously, Todd caught hold of a tree root, just as a yawning sinkhole opened up around him. As Todd struggled to free himself, a geyser of noxious fumes burst up around him and the ground began to tumble away. When he went to investigate, his feet sunk into a pool of bubbling mud. On Valentine’s Day 1981, 12-year-old Todd Domboski discovered a strange plume of smoke rising from a mysterious hole near his grandmother’s house. ![]()
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