Hell on Earth

In 1981 twelve year old Todd Domboski was playing in the backyard of a house in the mining town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, United States, when he suddenly disappeared from view. A sinkhole 4 feet in diameter and 150 feet deep had suddenly opened up beneath his feet. Fortunately the shocked young man was able to cling onto a tree root and he was quickly extricated from the hole by his cousin, fourteen year old Eric Wolfgang. Clouds of hot steam soon began billowing from the hole which, when tested, was found to contain lethal levels of carbon monoxide. It seemed as though Todd had just had a narrow escape from the clutches of hell. So what on earth was going on beneath the streets of Centralia?

To answer this question we need to go further back in time, almost 20 years in fact, to 7 May 1962, when the town council met to discuss the thorny issue of the new Centralia landfill site which had opened earlier that year, replacing an older refuse dump which had been located close to the town’s cemetery. The new site was essentially a pit approximately 300 feet long by 75 feet wide and was intended to serve as a single point for all of the town’s refuse. It was hoped that this would resolve the problem of fly tipping, which had long been an issue of concern to the local authority. However, the new dump was filling rapidly, and something needed to be done. The most straightforward solution was to simply burn the rubbish in the pit and, although state law prohibited dump fires, the town council nevertheless took the decision to set light to the refuse.

On 27 May 1962 a fire was lit at the landfill site in order to reduce the volume of waste material through combustion. Five members of the local volunteer firefighting service were hired to oversee the process, and the dump was allowed to burn throughout the day, with the flames being doused with water at nightfall. Unfortunately, and to the great consternation of the town councillors who had authorised the illegal fire, flames reappeared at the site 48 hours after the fire was thought to have been extinguished. A further attempt was made to put out the fire, but on 4 June the rubbish tip flared up again.

This time a bulldozer was brought in to remove the top layers of refuse so that firefighters could soak the concealed layers of the still burning waste. However, the removal of several tons of garbage revealed something very disturbing indeed. A hole as wide as 15 feet was discovered in the base of the north wall of the pit, which led to a labyrinth of old mine tunnels under the town. Still the rubbish continued to smoulder and so the council eventually called in Art Joyce, a mine inspector, who brought along gas detection equipment. Tests revealed the presence of carbon monoxide in the still smoking pit at levels typical of coal mine fires. It transpired that the council’s attempt to deal with the town’s waste had resulted in the ignition of an underground coal seam.

Unsurprisingly, councillors were keen to absolve themselves of responsibility for the developing catastrophe, and so when the Centralia Council sent a letter to the Leigh Valley Coal Company, formally notifying them of the mine fire, they referred to it as being “of unknown origin during a period of unusually hot weather”. Mine inspectors descended on the town and made daily checks of carbon monoxide levels. When, on 9 August, lethal levels were detected, all Centralia area mines were closed.

The first attempt to deal with the underground fire began in August 1962, through excavation. Unfortunately this did not help matters, as the digging resulted in the breaching of mine chambers, which allowed oxygen to rush in, further fuelling the fire. This resulted in the fire gaining momentum and moving deeper into the coal seam, faster than the excavators could chase it. By 29 October the project had run out of money and was halted. Despite the excavation of 58,580 cubic yards of earth, the fire continued to rage on under Centralia.

A second project was proposed, that entailed flushing the mines ahead of the fire with a mixture of water and crushed rock. This too failed to halt the fire, as winter had by now set in and unseasonably low temperatures had caused water supply lines to freeze and the rock grinding machine also froze up. Funding for this project ran out on 15 March 1963. On 11 April, steam was observed emanating from additional fissures in the ground, indicating that the fire was continuing to spread in an easterly direction. A third project involving the digging of trenches to encircle the burning coal seam was also abandoned in 1963.

Despite the closing of the mines and the underground fire, life in Centralia carried on as normal for many years. It seemed as though the townsfolk had largely forgotten about the subterranean conflagration – out of sight, out of mind. However, in 1979 gas station owner, and mayor of Centralia, John Coddington inserted a dipstick into one of his underground tanks to check the fuel level. When he pulled it up it seemed hot. On lowering a thermometer into the tank he was shocked to discover the temperature of the fuel to be a worrying 77.8 centigrade. And when in 1981 young Todd Domboski almost lost his life to a steaming sinkhole, it became apparent that drastic action would need to be taken.

Centralia Before and After the Demolition of Properties

Even so, progress was slow. In 1984 Congress allocated over 42 million dollars to relocate the residents of Centralia. Most of the population accepted buyout offers and moved away, although a few families opted to stay, despite being warned that the area was no longer a safe environment in which to live. In 1992 all properties within the town were condemned, and most were subsequently demolished. In 2002 the U.S. Postal Service revoked Centralia’s ZIP code. At the time the fire took hold, the town’s population stood at about 1,500. As of 2013 only 7 remained, and on 29 October of that year, those remaining residents were given special dispensation, allowing them to live out the remainder of their lives in the properties they had refused to leave.

At the time of writing, the Centralia mine fire has been burning for over 57 years, and it is estimated that it could continue to burn at its current rate for at least another 250 years. Surprisingly, no one was ever prosecuted for the illegal dump fire that resulted in the annihilation of an entire town.

Sources:
https://rare.us/rare-life/centralia-mine-fire-pa-burning/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia_mine_fire