Boing Boing

Boing Boing

The Pennsylvania town destroyed by a fire burning since 1962

Ellsworth Toohey
Dec 23, 2025
∙ Paid

By LaesaMajestas - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

In 1962, the town council of Centralia, Pennsylvania decided to burn trash in a landfill built inside an abandoned strip mine. The fire never went out. Sixty-three years later, it’s still burning.

The underground coal seam fire spreads through a labyrinth of abandoned mines beneath the town, burning at depth…

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