The Forever Burning Town

[300EVIL]

Wild story....

I just watched this on the History Channel and thought I'd share. Anyway, in 1962 the town of Centralia, PA was burning their garbage dump located next to an old coal mine shaft. It just so happens the mine cought fire and has been burning ever since! Despite the topic title, the fire will eventually go out,,,, in a hundred years or so!

I never knew something like this could even happen but it makes sense now. Theirs lots of fuel, AKA coal, up in em hills and with a little bit of oxygen, you've got an unstoppable fire. They made many attempts over the years to stop the fire but were unsuccessful.

The town has since been purchased by the federal government due to the exposure to carbon monoxide and other gasses seeping from the ground into homes yet a few dozen people still live there. (At least heating your home in the winter is cheap! ) Smoke billows from the ground in many places, grass does not grow and you can boil water right on the soil.

Weird huh!

This may be old news to some folks but I never even imagined something like this could happen.

Still don't believe it?
Here's the link... http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/the-story.htm

[clandestiny]

if your interest is peaked over this- get the movie "silent hill"- its the same vain-
also of note was "house of wax"-

peace

[300EVIL]

if your interest is peaked over this- get the movie "silent hill"- its the same vain-
also of note was "house of wax"-

peace

Hey clandestiny,
I fail to see the correlation of this event to the horror movies you suggested. (haven't seen them though...) I'll check them out sometime. One even has Paris Hilton in it,,, that's hot!
Adam

[steve-o]

Clan- you're back!!
Where you been ??
Glad you're still here

[platinum]

This makes the Springfield tire fire look tame..

That's incredible.

[James Lehman]

This is a real bummer. It seems like they could flood the whole mine with some kind of heavy inert gas, like CO2, but my guess is that there is a lot of organic material like mold and fungus in there that is full of O2.

James.

[300EVIL]

This is a real bummer. It seems like they could flood the whole mine with some kind of heavy inert gas, like CO2, but my guess is that there is a lot of organic material like mold and fungus in there that is full of O2.

James.

Bummer is right. They knew about the problem early enough and could have prevented the spread if they took it seriously the first two years. They almost had it under control once but they took labor day off and it started back up again. At least that's what I heard.

It seems that anthracite coal is very oxygen rich and thats what keeps the fire going. They tried pumping all kinds of crap down there with no success. The fire now covers something like 450 acres. Almost impossible to tame now.

[Things]

... and you can boil water right on the soil.

How hot is the soil?!?!

I couldnt imagine stepping on that, bare foot

[300EVIL]

How hot is the soil?!?!

I couldnt imagine stepping on that, bare foot

Yeah, Is some places it's over 400 degrees,,,,,,,,, Celsius! Check out the video below. They put a pair of rubber sole shoes on the ground for 30 minutes... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkHfnp2czZQ

[chad]

That was a cool show. It reminds me of this.

The door to hell.

http://www.englishrussia.com/?p=1830

chad