 Imagine a whole town evacuated due to an uncontrolled underground fire. Well, imagine no more as in Pennsylvania, USA, such a place actually exists. Today we'll talk about Centralia, or more to the point the 1962 Centralia Mine Fire and its effects on the community who lived above it. Thank you to my patrons for voting for this one. It is a slight bit different from a usual plain and difficult subject, however it is still a disaster in its own right. I'm going to rate this video here on the Painted Plainly Difficult Disaster Scale. Here's a brief history of the town of Centralia for some context. Centralia is located in Columbia County in the US state of Pennsylvania, which is around here on the map. Our story starts off with the princely sum of £500, which was the combined cost of settlers buying the land that would make up Centralia from Native Americans in 1749. Unknown to the purchasers at the time, but the land would prove to have great value as it sat atop a large coal deposit. In the late 1700s, the coal beneath was discovered, however it wouldn't be for another 50 to 60 years that the deposits would be exploited. In 1832, Jonathan Faust, credited as the town's founder, opened the Bull's Head Tavern, naming the new settlement Bull's Head. Talk about effective branding. In 1842, Centralia's land was bought by the Locust Coal and Iron Company and sent Alexandra Ray, a mining engineer, to design and build a small town to accommodate the miners. Ray named the town Centerville, however the post office refused this name and instead Centralia was penned to the small town. Business started to boom after the mine run railroad and first town mines opened in 1854 and 1856 respectively. As a strange side note, Alexandra Ray was murdered in 1868 during a period of robbery and homicide that engulfed the region. A record high population of 2,761 was recorded in 1890. This would be the peak of the settlement's inhabitants. After several rights purchases and two world wars, the population had sunk to 1,986 people by 1950. An interesting and detrimental bootleg industry had developed since the financial crash of 1929 and this was the act of pillar robbing. You see, a pillar is a column of un-mined ore used to support the roof of mine or is dug out in a grid formation leaving pillars kind of how a city street system is formed. This method is called room and pillar mining. Needless to say, bootleg mining is really dangerous as it compromises destruct integrity of the mine and can and does cause collapses which make navigation of the mine system difficult. Remember this for later on. This leads us on to 1962 and the town of Centralia had an illegal dumping problem. This was due to the mainland field site being closed to the public. A disused surface strip mine that had been cleared in the 1930s had been used as one such illegal dump and the council set about clearing it up. Although it's not known for certain, most theories point to the start of the fire being linked to the clearing works of the strip mine. The local council hired a number of firemen to clear up the dump and this involved burning the rubbish even though this was against state legislation. This material was covering up a hole 15 feet wide and several feet high in the base of the north wall of the pit. The fire was started on the 27th of May 1962 and was doused with fire hoses after the material burned away quelling the visible flames. Two days after the initial rubbish burning, the flames returned. Once again, the hoses were used to douse the smouldering. A week later, fire again was spotted and a bulldozer was called up to remove some layers of waste to try and find the source of the burning. This was when the hole leading to the maze of underground mines at Centralia was discovered and it was believed that this was the fuse that lit the disaster that was the Centralia minefire. On the 2nd of July, complaints began to come into the council of foul odours coming from the area of the dump. Clarence Cashner, the head of the Independent Mines Breakermen and Truckers Union, was called in to offer some advice on how to deal with the fire problem. Cashner suggested contacting Gordon Smith, an engineer of the Department of Mines and Mineral Industries to see what could be done. Upon evaluating the strip mines, Smith suggested excavating as much of the burning rubbish as possible to prevent any more ignition of the coal seam. The price of $175 had to be authorised, causing delays to the time critical situation, thus kicking the cost into the proverbial long grass. Little did the council know, but the fire spread into the coal seams inside the abandoned mines, creating an uncontrollable inferno beneath the town streets. This was exasperated by collapsed mines from illegal pillar mining, leading to difficulties tracking the route of the fire. Tests using gas detection equipment concluded that the large hole in the pit wall and from the cracks in the north wall contained carbon monoxide concentrations, hinting at a disastrous coalmine fire. The Lee Valley Coal Company was notified of the fire, although its true cause was withheld by the council, instead stating the source to be of unknown origin during a period of unusually hot weather. A meeting on the 6th August was set up at the strip mine with the LVCC and Seschke Hannah Coal Company to estimate the cost of digging out the fire. By now, the financial burden was estimated to be near $30,000, where $175 back in July sounded like a bargain. To add some toxic cherries to the dumpster fire cake, on the 9th August deadly levels of carbon monoxide were detected closing all centralia area mines. The contract to clear the fire was put out to tender and on the 17th was awarded to Brady Inc. The company would end up excavating 53,000 cubic yards, expending just over $27,000. Brady Inc would cease excavation works on the 29th October after discovering the fire had spread beyond the area. This would necessitate more serious works such as drilling and flushing, raising the cost significantly. A new project to stop the fire was set out and would involve flushing by mixing water and crushed rock into holes drilled ahead of the predicted path of the fire, and this was to fill voids and reduce oxygen. The new project was estimated to cost $40,000 and on the 19th November, K and H excavating began drilling some 84 holes. This would last until March 1963 when the money ran out after $43,000 was spent. Not to talk surprisingly, the fire was not contained. By May 1963 the fire had spread approximately 700 feet eastward and the fire had heated up as seen by steam plumes emanating from the ground. Three plans were drawn up and submitted to the Secretary of Mines and Mineral Industries. Option 1 costing $296,000 consisted of entrenching the fire and backfilling the trench with incombustible material such as clay. Option 2 costing $151,000 offered a smaller trench in an incomplete circle followed by extensive flushing. Option 3 was to drill more bore holes for flushing and would cost around $82,000. However, without proper funding the projects were all abandoned, instead opting to dig a cheaper trench. However, by October the fire was discovered on either side of the incomplete attempt, costing in excess of $32,000. In total the Council has spent over $100,000 with no effective control of fire, essentially dooming the fate of Centralia. Work would not restart until November 1966 when federal state funding was secured and after a year spending another $326,000 it was again discovered that the fire had spread. Seven more projects would be undertaken in 1970, 1973 and 1980, including flushing, injecting fly ash and the digging of containment trenches, all of which would not effectively control the fire. The ground beneath the town itself increased in heat, reaching over 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Smoke poured from sinkholes and filled basements with gas necessitating evacuation of residents due to oxygen deficiencies and heightened levels of carbon monoxide. Increased reports of health issues plagued the residents with heightened respiratory complications. Locals became aware of the severity of the fire when the roads began to bulge and sinkholes appeared. Residents were divided between staying and abandoning the town. In 1982 the US Congress allocated $42 million for the relocation of Centralia's inhabitants. Unsurprisingly many took the money and ran, as essentially the property was now worthless. In total 1,000 people moved out of the town and 500 buildings were raised at the ground, leaving behind around 63 residents. Many buildings foundations became unstable, as the fire burned away creating voids beneath the town, meaning demolition was the only route left. Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey invoked eminent domain on the town in 1992, condemning any remaining structures. The town was now all but gone except for a handful of steadfast residents. The order refused any rights, the order refused the rights of any resident to hand down or sell their property. By 2003 the US Postal Service revoked the town zip code and after 2009 evictions cleared out most of who remained. However Centralia today still exists with a population of 5. After 20 years of battling over eminent domain in 2013, the remaining residents were allowed to stay and part of the settlement gave a grand sum of $349,500 to the 8 litigants. The town still receives a large amount of visitors in a strange form of abandoned expolation, and the main attraction of sorts being the Graffiti Highway which was once part of PA Route 61. Havis now has been covered up with dirt to deter visitors during the Covid pandemic. The fire is predicted to burn for at least another century as the seams of coal in the region act as a limitless source of fuel. I hope you enjoyed the video, if you would like to support the channel financially you can on Patreon from $1 per and that gets you early access to videos and access to votes. I have a YouTube membership as well from 99p per month and that gets you early access to videos. Check me out on Twitter and also if you'd like to wear my merch you can purchase it at my Teespring store and all that's left to say is thank you for watching.