Centralia From Above

[kent06403]

It's a crime what happened there making a whole town leave due to the fire. The coal burns amazingly hot

[jossluiss]

i want to visit that place

[miamidetodos]

miren bola de pendejos dejen hacer a la naturaleza su trabajo y poinganse a trabajar al fin que al cabo cuando se cabe el carbon esta pendejada se acaba y ya y dejen de estar diciendo estupideces

[Fabzil]

@nukem500 pennysbox11 just told you the stuff. But what she didn't told you (but maybe she knows it ?) is that the fire is actually sucking the air, 'case its needs to breathe, so some places in the town have a low oxygen level :P

[pennysbox11]

@nukem500 its because the tunnels the old mines excavated had enough ventilation holes and were sufficiently wide to allow mine workers to breathe underground. Unfortunately now it is letting the fire breathe as well. This could be avoided by keeping underground coal mines anaerobic environments and forcing workers to wear breathing apparatus, this too has its downside such as in the event of a cave in or similar disaster.

[groovaholic23]

@qmarcesq yes you can goto Centralia, PA and walk around! There is much to see and do but it is very dangerous! If you do plan a trip be sure to do enough research of where to go, what to see and take a first aid kit just in case something were to happen!

[QmarcesQ]

Would we be allowed to go exploring if we wanted to?

[barca2022]

all i want from silent hill ..is that hot cop ..!!

[kkjgg112391]

Imagine a beautiful town slowly degrading co'z of human error.

[stfuwtfomgg]

no one died they just moved away. abandoned it. thats why its called a ghost town...

[pf126p]

Didn't May's close its doors?

[musiclvr7289]

such a sad story...

[smokine2001]

it is not illegal to go there there are still main roads going through there you dip stick i live 5 minutes away

[TonyAirlines]

I'm suprised there's no temporary TFR or warning area around there...you would think those gasses would be hazardous.

I fly out of Trenton, NJ...never flown that far, but it'd be nice to.

[OreovsEggo]

It has pretty mush the exact story 2!

[starpopcorn2]

What has the same story? The underground fire? Centralia has the same story as the FILM because they based the FILM around that incident. The GAMES have a completely different story why Silent Hill is the way it is. So Centralia is not the ORIGALNL Silent Hill. It is the inspiration for the FILM.

[JoleneRamsahai]

i tried to go to centralia on Google earth, but didnt really see anything :-/ wish i could go there. is it a big tourist attraction? or more of a gamer attraction lol?

[LoserNO13]

It's zip code was revoked before Google earth.

[PamK36]

You can see in on Google maps Satellite view.

[390merc65]

if you want to see it that way ,,google ashland pa 17921..and just fallow the road to the top of ashland turn right and then just fallow the road till you come to the old road..google up the old road and you will be in centralia ...most of the town is gone now , but you can still drive right threw it and look around if you wanted too

[RaidenX196]

Actually, It's neither. It's completely illegal to go there by rule of the government.

[DragonWorldProducts]

It's a ghost town. which means ther is nothing there but the buildings.

[feralferret]

Just type "Centralia Pennsylvania" into Google Earth.

Even has Google StreetView on Route 61/Locust Avenue and Route 54 through there, although there's not much to see, it looked like a rainy day.

[alamiator]

it would suck if silent hill became real...

[YugiOST]

this place is really kickass.but still people living over there?

[primal2020]

i think the population is like just under 15 people

[Devinfilms6679]

lol hobos

[LT1derland]

now, its 0, last year it was one. you cant buy property there either.

[starpopcorn2]

did the people die or just leave?

[LT1derland]

just about everyone was relocated, anyone who died there was from old age.

[starpopcorn2]

were they forced too move?

[KatsuyaKaibaChan]

The Government put together the money to be able to relocate most of the town out of there. Anybody who stayed, stayed under their own power.

[powaa4u]

they must left the town, but 10 people still live there because they wont leave the town, but in 1 or 2 years they MUST get out because the politic says that ^^

sry for my bad english

[HattieLovesCattie]

@powaa4u Another poster on this town on YT said in Feb of this year,the state of PA forced those last few people living in the town to move.

[joeygsmom]

Ive driven thru there is it really that dangerous?

[floor9]

It's not dangerous if you stick to the main road. The side roads *might* be safe. We stupidly went walking through yards & woods once, and we're still alive. But I wouldn't do that again.

[joeygsmom]

do you live really close? Im about 1 1/2 hours away, we drove there to get to Knobles you know it?

[alamiator]

so there is a place called slient hill i never new that

[MsArbitrary]

It's not called Silent Hill, it's called Centralia, it's where the creators of Silent Hill got the idea for the town, supposedly.

[Tiffmidon]

@floor9

Why, what happened when you walked through the yards and woods? What did you see?

[Zethux]

@Tiffmidon Under the thin layer of dirt is a massive cave. If for some reason it (god forbid) collapsed. There would probably be a crater in the Earth.

[Zure467]

@Tiffmidon the ground is just really unstable and through fissures in the soil and roads steam pours through

there is a chance of falling in a hole and burning alive but i doubt it would happen

[mrkt666bdgr]

I only live 2 miles from Centralia. xD

[SoWierd612]

by giving people directions to a ghost town is a bad idea. youre practacaly killing innocent people in a giant mine fire that will burn for hundreds of years. THERES A REASON ITS NOT ON MAPS AND THERES NO ONE THERE! jackass.

[floor9]

You're an idiot.

[kaelthekid]

LOL

[08rtaylo]

...idiot lol

[ethen24]

According to Wikipedia, as of the 2007 census, 9 people currently live there still...

[wawern]

no, around 15

[kevin2815]

no , around 12

[MAMsMom97]

There's talk of possibly using nitrogen-enhanced foam to put out the fires that burn under Centralia, similar to what was used to put out other mine fires. But then again, they'd have to use an awful lot to put out a fire that large that's been burning that long. And then that raises the question of what to do with all the sinkholes and whether the town will ever be safe enough to inhabit afterwards.

[superbad42]

you know this is the place that was originally set to be the town for the screening of the silent hill movie. it would have gotton chosses except for its lack of buildings

[sarumanstrength]

james sunderland went here a few decades back

[dozer785]

I live about 20 min from there and it's not that bad. Yea you might find some gases but you would have to be right on top of the holes and they have most of the fenced off. other then that it looks like a town that was left abandoned.

[13pranks]

I wonder if they could somehow deprive the fire of oxygen? I'm sure it's been suggested before...

[rosenti]

Okay unless you have a gas mask, i wouldn't go there. I mean, even if you wanted to check out abandoned homes, you most likely would choke on fumes and die.. lol.. what a lovely picture :P

[TheDanCam]

I was in Centralia just yesterday and came back alive. Seriously, it's not life-threatening unless you stick your head in the ground and breathe in the fumes.

[juelz6187]

rosenti, I went to Centralia last year, and you don't need a gas mask. It smells like sulfer but only in the areas where the smoke comes up. And I only saw one abandoned building, all the others have been torn down. It's kind of creepy seeing an abandoned town though.

[Makkelisch]

Is this town abanndoned because of the coal fire or what?

[cattleprodding]

Nope. People still live there. You can drive to the town and actually walk around, granted that the fumes don't choke you.

[geofree1984]

according to the latest census, it's like 18 people left or something. there zipcode was fully revoked n everything. and the highway was rerouted. this place is too scary. enough coal to keep the fire going for another 250 years (and it's already been almost 50)

[ucanthateme98]

anither 250? try 1000

[geofree1984]

that's SICK. i need to go to this place.

[losgo]

The Fuel there can Burn for about 1000 Years there is so Enough and its a poor Town its to bad that all those peoples has been died.

[Rcrby525]

no one died, they moved away.

[Kurisublack]

Don't be mad, but whole Centralia thing is nothing compared to Prypiat in Ukraine, there are guided tours through the less contaminated area.

[donaldjr1969]

And in Pripyat, a guide MUST be present with dosimeters so that visitors do not wander into areas where radioactivity is still quite high. Heck, those tours even take a person right to the Sarcophagus along Chernobyl's Number 4 reactor.

[Evilbrad13]

Yer but it was cool

[EFS1968]

The cost in the 80's to fix the problem was over 65 million USD. This was an estimate to completely dig up the 3000+ acres of coal under and around the town. There is no way to flood all the mine shafts.

[topdjcom]

why dont they pump millions of gallons of water down the cracks and vents

[floor9]

From where? And more importantly, millions of gallons wouldn't even begin to remotely come close to standing the slightest chance of hoping to put it out.

[donaldjr1969]

With regards to flooding the mines, the only way that could be acheived would be to divert the entire Susquehanna River through the shafts. And that will never happen.

[iwebber88]

They were going to flood the mines, but the Government said it would cost to much. And it's 250+ years it will burn. (Smithsonian Magazine, May 2005)

[gnuworldorder]

Flooding the mines would cause steam explosions, which are more dangerous than the fire itself.

[iwebber88]

I highly doubt that, basically because that's one eason the government gave.

[DriedGooshies]

The fire will continue to burn until it burns itself out..The government has made futile what may seem as petty attempts to stop it. The only way I understand is to completely dig the entire mine out, which costs millions of dollars. YOu can't dig a part becuase the fire spread faster than workers could dig. Needless to say, I doubt it'll be put out by the government, as it costs way too much money. I saw a video on an interview of the mayor of Centralia, and he never plans to leave.

[whpu]

teh fires continues 500 years more..

[bchokola]

You have 2 alternators? You mean magnetos? the c172's i have flown have only one as far as i know. Never really taken the cowling off to see though, and even so you can fly without instruments/radio/battery as it was vfr out anyways. so boo yah. also this is a pretty awesome video.

[whpu]

the Centralia is completely untility?

[InuPf]

Since the gas pumped out can kill people.... Yes ... It became a Ghost Town... actually there`s a small population formed by 9 inhabitants.. lol

[whpu]

man,this is the real "Silent HIll", i play the one, i understand the disaster in this town,in SH1, are snowning day and, are very poor visibility, and, the song and others things are very liked this! sorry for my horrible english, i am argentinian lol

[InuPf]

Yep, Silent Hill was a movie adaptation of what happened to Centralia. And they added horror elements to the movie... But the main idea was extracted from Centralia...

[whpu]

yes, but, the movie are a completly unliked the SH1, 1, Rose, are dead, James, is of the 2, piramid head, apread in the 2, the monsters in the alley, are babies, whitout Knives,if do it a remake...whit Harryl...hey! you believe are something of mutations in Centralia? . . .

[iwebber88]

Silent Hill was a movie adaption based on a Video Games series, not this. The movie's plot did revolve around the tradgedy at Centralia though.

[DBarns7]

I heard that if they don't stop the undergound fires, surrounding towns could suffer Centralia's fate. It's amazing how such a small fire back in the early 60's could lead to all this. Hopefully they stop it eventually.

[slavar]

Hmm its strange that there is still some live(grass is green trees are also green)I though these gases are deadly. Btw isn´t there any law about filming with your camera and piloting an airplane in same time?:)

[floor9]

In parts of the town, the trees are white from being bleached by the toxins over the years, yet there are parts of the town that appear untouched. That's because the fire isn't uniformly spread throughout the town. But because the coal veins snake throughout the ground underneath, most of the town is unsafe. As for filming, my friend had the camcorder in the back seat, so we're good!

[JawsJaws]

Thanks for posting. Great video. I was there April 25, 2007. Travelled from Pittsburgh area to see it. Took about half an hour to figure out that the road with cracks in it is up the hill from cemetery on bend behind the mounds of dirt. We looked near the bottom flatlands, bell and benches when we first got there. So if anyone goes to look for highway, go up the hill past cemetery near bend. Look over mound of dirt. You can also enter from bottom if you continue down that hill.

[cloverhoseman325]

i live here!

[averagejoe0073]

How do you have internet or electricity?

[NikoYasha]

Wow...That's cool.

[acurajustin]

I wonder... if toxic gasses from the underground fired can mess with the engine.

[floor9]

No; cars wouldn't be able to travel through the down.

[acurajustin]

I mean in your aircraft. Some show on Disccovery tested that a WW2 fighter plane engine would stop if there was 1% methane in thei air. That's one theory for all the dissapearences in the Bermuda Triangle.

[floor9]

The engine in a Cessna 172 is a simple piston engine. It operates on the same basic concept as the engine in your car. So any gas that is so dense as to displace oxygen or otherwise foul the engine at 1500' AGL (our approximate altitude during filming) would definitely make vehicular travel through the town impossible. So no, I'm going to say the gasses don't pose a problem to combustion engines.

[forgetxregret]

I was able to drive through the town. There are only a few houses with lights on. other than that everything is empty. The closest thing where people could live is a trailer park which is creepy as hell at night.

[Maytag818]

I'm totally going to sue you after I use your driving directions and aerial map to fall into a flaming pit.

[insertcoolname]

that's just like that town in Nothin but Trouble with Dan Akroyd!

[goneutt]

if the property was of any value, you could put out the fire with a few dozen earth moving machines, and a very through scrape and relevel of the area. As it is, Centralia is just an odd spot in the history books.

[floor9]

Not really, goneutt. The fire is far deeper and more widespread than that.

[lghtsbrmstr]

I'd like to see you put out a mine fire with a few dozen earthmovers.

[tenslerISfunny]

wow awesome I had no idea a place like that actually existed, this is why I love you tube im def going for a visit next time im driving cross country

[SirGnarls177]

thats DJ Shadow, not Mr Peabody! LMAO

[vudukungfu]

I'm told you can't go home again.

Thanks, Mr Peabody.