The Centralia Mine Fire - An Underground Inferno 

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For those who qant more info about Centralia, Stephanie Harlowe recently did a long, two part series on it and its really in depth. Not to take away anything from Simon's video, Stephanie's are over an hour each, and she goes into lots of the back stories and details that couldnt fit into a video for this channel. It's a nice addition to Simon's.

Hi Simon. I literally live a mile from Centralia and use to worship there and buried my youngest son there along with my dad and other family.

The reason some refused to leave was lack of money. I don't have exact figures, but one person interviewed it went something like this: We'll buy your house, which is worth $50k, but we'll only give you $10k, which isn't enough to pay off your current mortgage, so you'll still owe the bank. We good? What do you mean, "No?"

We stopped by last year after visiting Knoebels and the Museum of Anthracite Mining. One young woman in our part was from Centralia and we stopped by the cemeteries to look for relatives' graves. Many of the plots where houses were located are dotted with piles of debris, and smoke rising in the cemeteries is very eerie.

I actually visited this place in March 2019, it was a surprisingly popping place all things considered! Lots and lots of visitors from near and far were crawling all over the place and the old closed roads were literally covered in graffiti and chalk art. Families and friends were riding bicycles and dirt bikes and ATVs all over the place. Even if Centralia is gone as a town it once was, it seems to still be a place where humans come together.

2:30 - Chapter 1 - Underground fires are common 2:50 - Mid roll ads 4:05 - Back to the video 5:25 - Chapter 2 - Accident or carelessness ? 7:15 - Chapter 3 - A sudden sinkhole 9:45 - Chapter 4 - Underground, but not unknown 11:10 - Chapter 5 - Fighting the residents, not the fire 14:05 - Chapter 6 - The graffiti highway 15:55 - Chapter 7 - A condemned town 17:45 - Chapter 8 - An unhealthy town 18:40 - Chapter 9 - A smoldering ghost town - Chapter 10 -

I’m two hours(ish) away from Centralia. I’ve seen it and it’s haunting. But it’s also sobering and oddly calming, at least to me.

Best time to go here is the fall and winter so you see the steam and smoke coming coming out of the ground. It’s pretty cool to visit.

I visited there almost 20 years ago. Seeing the heatwaves radiating from holes in the ground and smelling the sulfur from the fires was sobering. One local we talked to shared that that the grass never dies in the winter because the ground never freezes.

I've been to Centralia, before they blocked off/destroyed the old roadway. It was really cool. The road AROUND the old roadway was there, but back then you were able to walk the old roadway. Also talked to some locals. It was a very unique experience

Would like to see a Geographics on Wittenoom in Australia. Fascinating mining boom town, turned Ghost town, was removed from maps, and the ground there is still riddled with blue asbestos.

Visited up there at the end of August 2022. The forest has reclaimed most of the area so during certain months, you can’t really see anything left due to the foliage. The nearby painted highway has also been officially closed due to a new company owning it

Oh snap, a Bill Bryson mention! Love that guy! He wrote 'A Short History of Nearly Everything', which is a fascinating read. Nice.

ah yes, another video on Centralia this shit literally never gets old, it's always fun and interesting hearing different narrations about stories like this :)

In April 2011, my then-girlfriend and I went to Hershey for a RUSH concert, and the next day we stopped off to check out Centralia. I found it absolutely fascinating, especially the graffiti highway. It was also cool seeing the cemeteries, municipal building, the time capsule in the small park (with the dates 1966-2016; I think I read they actually ended up opening it a couple years prior to 2016), and the steam rising out of the ground in numerous places. It's too bad they buried the graffiti highway, but I understand why they did it. I'm just glad I saw it back in 2011.

I live in the town next to Centralia, and this video did a great job describing it's history and how it is currently. Plus it was awesome seeing you cover a location so close. Thank you Simon, love your videos!

1:58 I am from this area of Pennsylvania. It is not completely abandoned. There are still a few occupied houses in the town. (Mostly very old people who refuse to leave.) It still has it’s borough building, and volunteer fire department as well. (I was born and raised, and for the first 30 years of my life, lived in Northeastern, Pennsylvania.) I also used to commute from NEPA to Harrisburg, PA, where I work, passing by the exit to Highway 61 and to Centralia on Interstate 81 going to and from. The re-routed Highway 61 actually does still go through a part of Centralia, but most people are completely unaware of that.

I grew up in the crap hole known as Centralia, is crazy how big of an impact that mine getting closed had on the area. Was a booming little gem at one point. Methed up and war torn now days.

Do one on the avondale hill mine fire or the knox mine disiaster, the later was an incident where miners dug under the susquehanna river and it breached in the mines flooding miles of mine

I have been watching your channels for at least 3 years now. Multiple times I commented on Geographics videos telling you that you should make a video about Centralia. I could've sent you some awesome ground photos, drone photos, and videos from here. I go off roading and hiking in and around Centralia a lot. I live 30 minutes from there.

I live a few miles from Centralia, I drive through it pretty frequently. There are still a couple people who live there, why, I don’t know. There is a post office there which can’t close because those people who refuse to leave. It’s a strange site to see this post office in this abandoned wasteland.

There are absolutely roads in and out of Centralia. Even the re-routed HW 61 goes through a part of it. I think St Ignatius Catholic Church was still there in 1996, and yes, that absolutely would have be surrounded by white smoke. However, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is they still an active parish, and where they still hold mass, is up on the hill/mountain leading out of the town and does not have smoke anywhere near it. It is out of the danger zone. And there are absolutely roads leading to that Church. The fire is horrible, and no one should be living there, but there is a ton of inaccurate information by people who have been there for a day, and on websites that try to make things more interesting. There is a documentary called “The Town That Was” that is very good, and a great book by David DeKok, a reporter from the region. I can’t remember the name of it, but it is definitely worth a read.

Centralia is about 90 mins from my home and is still accessible by public roads - just not the Graffiti Highway 1. Take I-81 N to exit 116 for PA-901 toward Minersville 2. Keep left at the fork and merge onto PA-901 W 3. Turn right onto High Rd 4. Turn left onto Lavelle Rd 5. Turn right onto PA-54 E 6. Turn left onto PA-61 N 7. Turn right onto Centre St

Used to live in Aston, PA I really missed my opportunity to check this place out. Would love to see the place that inspired “Silent Hill”

Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, as all of Bryson's books, is hilarious. I've read it 3 x over the last 10 years. If you wanna have plenty of good chuckles, I strongly recommend reading it. Thank you Simon and crew for reminding me of A Walk in the Woods.

My mom grew up a ten minute drive from Centralia, I grew up visiting there every few months to see my grandparents/uncle/cousins/etc. I didn't learn about Centralia until I was a teenager, eventually reading about it in a book in the anthracite coal museum gift shop, explaining how in like 150 years my uncle's house would be uninhabitable as the fire and smoke continues to spread. Shit is goddamn nuts

Although likely not aware of it at the time, I was first introduced to the coal fires of Centralia back in '99 playing Silent Hill on the PS1 while on bail....

I grew up maybe 2 hours drive from Centralia. My dad took me there as a kid a few times to look around. It's like another world.

If you're interested in some great documentaries about Centralia, check out "The Town that Was" from 2006 and "Centralia: Pennsylvania's Lost Town" from 2017. They're both very good. I had family that lived in next-door towns of Shamokin and Kulpmont. When I was old enough to drive, I would visit family on my own and check out the closed section of Route 61. That was before it was known as Graffiti Highway. My grandparents would tell me first-hand stories of what they'd experienced with friends in Centralia. It was surreal to see. The last time I would visit the area was in October of 2019, not long before the road was covered with dirt to thwart visitors.

Congratulations! You've made the 1,000,000th video on this topic! Still love you.

My grandmother’s family is from the neighboring town of Mt. Carmel, PA. I once visited the remains of Centralia. I didn’t see the grafitti-covered road, but I did see the remains of old house foundations and tons and tons of warning signs.

I live near Centralia, WA. It's also a coal mining based community. There are mine tunnels everywhere in the region, but for awhile it was open pit mining to feed a coal plant. Now all the coal is brought in from other areas.

Bro been in a Pennsylvania mood lately

A Walk In The Woods is brilliant, lovely, and only slightly scary!

I’ve walked the closed section of PA 61 when visiting friends from the area. It is quite the surreal experience.

Last time I visited was 2000-2001. Such a strange place. I grew up less than an hour away and never knew the Silent Hill connection.

Centralia was always a cool place to think of for some reason. People try to explain their reason for leaving and everything, but my heart really goes out to the few that remained because chances are they lived there their entire life. It’s difficult to give up your home because someone who doesn’t know shit about you decides you need to leave even when the government said it would have fixed it… over 40 years ago. Also the town gave inspiration for one of my favorite game series of all time, Silent Hill.

Centralia is an interesting place. I travel there occasionally. I've collected anthracite from this town and have a bunch of it. The history of Centralia is fascinating.

I’m glad that the highway was covered, the issues just became overwhelming. The area around centralia is still owned by the coal companies and strip mining is still active east and west of the town.

There are nearby towns that will also be swept up in the same fire btw. It's pretty crazy.

I've been there several times, the last in 2019. I know there was one hold out. He took care of the cemeteries and used to put out the town's old holiday decorations. I don't know if he is still there.

Been waiting for you to cover this for the channel. Thanks for getting Around to it.

There's still a main through way that'll take you from mount Carmel to girardville (west to east) and Ashland to Artistes (south to North). A lot of people drive through there's just not a lot to see.

I live 15 mins from Centralia. It’s not even a novelty anymore, it’s just a place we drive through.

Moved to a small town about a half-hour away from Centralia in 2014. That beautiful old Ukrainian Orthodox Church is still there, but not much else. The headstones in cemeteries south of town are buckling and toppling over; not sure if it's because the ground is settling or because people are just being people. There's a big worry that, as the fire continues burning, it might eventually reach the town of Ashland, Pennsylvania, which is only 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of Centralia, and currently has a population of just under 2,500 people. Fun fact: Centralia was the impetus behind the "Silent Hill" series.

A friend of mine grew up near there. Him and his high school friends go offloading in their jeeps still when he visits.

centralia does indeed have roads to other towns,,that hasnt changed other then a mile or so of old route 61 grafitti highway ..i live a mile from there and you can still drive around town although not much to see ...you dont see smoke anymore , the fire has moved on ..i go threw centralia about 3 times a week

I live in PA approx 2 hours outside of Centralia and back in the day my family and I used to drive through Centralia on our way to Knoebles Amusement Park then one year suddenly we couldnt anymore once they blocked it off and detoured us around it

it does have roads connecting to other towns..

In the 1980s Centralia was all over the news, and scores of people were still fighting the government & refusing to leave. It still looked like a town then, even with smoke wisping up from every nook & cranny.

This is fascinating! I had no idea anything like this existed

Contrary to popular belief, this incident inspired only the Silent Hill movie, but not the games.

This is right up the road. Been burning since I was a kid. We used to watch the road melt as we drove to knobles grove. *2 famiies remain , Simon..i was just there.

Isn't this the place that the games and movies "Silent Hill" is based on? Creepy and scary games from the late 90s, early 00s based around wondering a smokey, foggy town with monsters and hallucinations.

Sweet im glad you did a full video on this

I have lived in PA my whole life and only learned about this 2 years ago. I was shocked. I also work at Hershey now so this was so interesting to me

I'm sorry, but I couldn't stop laughing at "walkling" at 14:42. Great video, and I love that slip up. Walkling is a fantastic word.

Sounds pretty intense, jeez.

Oh look a Simon upload. *hits play*

I'm a simple Pennsylvanian. I see "Centralia", I hit play.

I grew up not far from there. We didn’t think much about it, there where mine fires in other places around the anthracite coal region. There was one on the Centralia side of Mt. Carmel and on the far side of Shamokin. They dug those out. Rt61 still runs through the town, S to Ashland and N to Bloomsburg, in what was the middle of town you can turn W to Mt. Carmel and S to Girardville. And I’m not sure how that writer took a detour off the Appalachian trail and ended up in Centralia? The trail crosses Rt61 2 counties south of there. He would have needed more than a pair of hiking boots.

My (then) local towns dump had underground burning gas deposits. If you took a wrong step you could just disappear.

Looooooooooooool Simon's reaction to the town name Shamokin amazing

Although there are no more indications of the fire under the town of Centralia there are steam vents just east of the town off of Big Mine Road. I took carbon monoxide readings there and found there is no CO coming from the vents. This means there is either residual heat underneath or the fire is burning deep and at a much farther location. There is another fire that is taking place just 5k east of Centralia dubbed the Girardville Fire.

The phrase "crumbling pavement" sounds amazing in your accent 😊

I live right by centrailia i figured it would be fitting to watch this as i sit there place is still crazy to see even tho i see it so frequently

Always fun to watch a video on a regional topic.

Glad to see you talk about some stuff near me

While I am opposed to strip mining in general, I wonder if strip mining this coal seam might allow the fire to be extinguished...

Okay, okay the death-smoke is pretty bad, but hear me out. Heated pavement is super class, no need for salt on the ground in winter. I’d say it’s worth.

Feels cool seeing a place I actually visited

18:39 poor kitty :(

Coal seam fires can happen from a variety of sources: Volcanism, lightning strikes, human stupidity and a phenomena called self heating. Studies show that the self-heating point for coal can range from just 35 to 140 degrees Celsius (95 to 284 °F). The increases in heat wave trends will likely lead to more self heating coal seam ignitions. You can't really put out a coal fire with water because it can be hot enough in the burning coal seam that the water will split into oxygen and hydrogen, intensifying the pre-existing ignition problem..

Byrnsville just to the south has been wiped out as well. Ashland is in the path of the vein as well. It too will be abandoned in the next decade.

Wow, I was excited for you to bring up a mining disaster that happened close to me in Centralia ILLINOIS in 1947. Seems like towns named centralia have a knack for going up in flames.

I visited in 2008. There were boards thrown into some of the crevices created by the mine fire. The boards showed the "crocodile" affect of being being burmed.

It's definitely worth the visit! It's only 2 counties over from me. It's a weird place, tho.

Now that I think about it, this town was probably the inspiration for The Devil Below.

I went to this town around 2007. It’s surreal how the smoke comes from the ground. At night, you can see fire on the cracks which gives it a horror movie look especially near in the cemetery that is mentioned on this video.

The sheer number of burning coal mines throughout the world is heartbreaking. "We're not going to make it, are we? People, I mean" just hit a lot closer

surprised you didn't mention how Centralia was the inspiration for the famous Silent Hill franchise too 🙂

I'm only an hour away from Centralia, and my buddies asked me if I wanted to tag along for a trip. "Uh, the place was evacuated for a reason, ya know, so that's a solid NO from me."

I live 20 miles from Centralia, very good episode but for the value of anthracite. I heat my home with coal and recently paid $220 a ton up from $200 just a year ago. Coal mining is alive here in the area. I live in Shamokin Pennsylvania.

Been riding dirt bikes through that town since 2010. The crack in the roads were so hot we could throw M80s in them and it would go off without lighting the fuse.

Drove through Centralia in the late 80s before they shut the road down completely. Only about a dozen or so houses still being lived in and one convenience store. Everything else was torn down, smoke stacks everywhere. creepy AF.

Route 61 still exists, running as a two-lane roadway from Ashville (in neighboring Schuylkill County) to a junction with Route 42 in what was the town's center, before heading west (despite Route 61 being a north-south road) to Sunbury.

This must be the 5th video I've watched about Centralia on RU-vid. I guess I'm watching another purely because it's Simon. Considering how many videos on the subject exist already, it does disappoint that there's never been a De Havilland Mosquito video just about the plane. Yeah, the Amiens video was good, but... 😊

i visited centralia a few years back it was very interesting seeing the place where so much had happened and the graffiti highway was incredible i saw that there have been piles of dirt piled on it since which was disappointing

Going to take a ride there one of these days

i live about 15-20 minutes away kinda crazy seeing a town from my area on the channel

when it snows there, does the snow even stick? no shoveling the walkway, kind of cool.

Sure, I've seen a hundred Centralia documentaries, but... Well. It's Simon! :D

I’ve always been fascinated by Ghost Towns.

I watched a documentary about this place and there was a handful of people still living there at the time. One guy and a handful of older couples. Now its just completely abandoned

Fun fact: Centralia was one of the inspirations for the Silent Hill video game series

You don't have to believe in the supernatural to find something eerie, even spooky, about abandoned towns - especially ones where people *can't* live anymore because there's basically a giant volcano underneath them.

The movie Nothing But Trouble (Chevy Chase, Dan Ackroyd and John Candy) used the areas underground coal fires as part of the plot.

Grew up about 30 minutes away from there, we used to tag the graffiti highway all the time just for fun. Love the Skook but I'm glad I got out of there

Ive been there twice. Interesting place.