They pumped a slurry of ash, water, and rocks into the mine, but nothing worked.Įventually, they had no choice but to give up, and the city was condemned. They covered the surface with clay, seek to smother the blaze. The Delaware, Lackwanna, and Western Railroad (DL&W) built a whole town out of concrete to house the coal. South from there is a novel display of the coal industries innovation and grandeur in the early 20th centery. Honestly, though, it’s kind of the opposite. A little drive south-west from Wilkes-Barre PA is the town of Nanticoke.
Pa ghost town full#
Since that time it has gotten a reputation as a toxic horrorland full of winking sinkholes and carcinogenic clouds of death vapor. Short version: Centralia is a ghost town.on fire. And when there weren’t visible fires, residents complained about the constant smell of smoldering trash and coal.Īuthorities tried for years to extinguish the fire. A Ghost TownOn Fire: Return to Centralia, PA. This pattern of putting out fires and finding them sprouting up again days later would continue for weeks. The fire latched onto an old coal seam from the mine and slowly spread throughout the mines under the city.Įven though the visible flames were doused throughout the day on the 25th, more fires were spotted on May 29th. The Pennsylvania Railroad and the Blair Iron & Coal. The town was at its peak during the construction of the Gallitzin tunnels and began as a shanty town to house the migrant workers. With the need for labor in the area the town of Bennington was founded in 1846. Brownsville, Pennsylvania is looking like a real life ghost town. Little did they know they’d be waiting for 54 years. The furnaces were part of a small operation that mined iron from the nearby valley. Using hoses, they sprayed the flames to keep the fire under control, and they waited for the smoldering trash to burn itself out. The only problem is that Centralia had been a major coal mining area in the past, and the landfill was located on top of an old coal mine. This isn’t surprising burning trash was a common practice then. The city council had met earlier that month to discuss the best way to go about cleaning up the 300-foot wide, 75-foot long pit, and they had decided on fire. But there was a problem they still hadn’t dealt with: Clean up of a landfill before the celebration. The citizens of Centralia were getting ready for their Memorial Day festivities to take place a day later.
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Smoke rising from the ground in Centralia|CC Jrmski