OH CR4P!

If you've seen the horror film Silent Hill, or the game it was inspired from, you'll likely remember the alternate reality world that was characterized by fog and smoke. The setting of the creepy flick specifically revolves around a small town that was abandoned years ago due to a coal seam fire. The inspiration for this came from the infamous town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, a true victim of coal fire where smoke actually does rise out of the ground.

(<--Credit: Aeropause)

The Incident

The smoke that rises from rifts and holes in Centralia's ground is the result of an underground anthracite coal fire that has been burning for half a century. In May of 1962, volunteer firefighters set the town landfill on fire to as was custom in order to tidy it up for Memorial Day. The landfill was brilliantly located in an abandoned open-pit mine. The fire burned deeper than expected, and days later - after the initial damping out by firemen - there were reports that burning debris had fallen down an old abandoned mine shaft next to the dump. By mid-July, there were no doubts that a fire was certainly burning underground.

(Credit: Penn State University-->)

Countermeasures

The silence exhibited by the town in response to the fire really lived up to its movie namesake. When the initial debris landed in the mines, there was no urgency to have it removed by the Pennsylvania Department of Mines which had jurisdiction over the site. Early attempts to stop the fire's progress through shoveling burning material, pumping slurry, and digging trenches were inefficient, underemphasized, and poorly funded.

Attempts to stop the fire came in short waves, surrounded by large periods of silence. Initial measures ended in 1963 and did not resume until 1967. By 1969, even the Federal Bureau of Mines decided to abandon the problem after a failed attempt to stifle the fire with a fly ash "barrier", fearing there was no feasible solution. Years later, after the dangers of the fire became realized, the state and federal government began relocation initiatives to abandon the doomed town to its fate.

Effects of the Fire

The residents of Centralia first experienced problems from the fire in the form of headaches, nausea, drowsiness, and asthma, caused by carbon monoxide and other harmful gases being leaked from underground. Sadly, little was done to educate people about the health hazards they were facing, or to remedy them.

It wasn't until 1979 that the problems started to gain public attention when a gas station owner reported extremely high temperatures (172 °F) in his underground gasoline tank. The last straw came in 1981, when a boy named Todd Domboski broke the silence by nearly falling to his death down into a 150 ft deep sinkhole caused by the underground fire.

Todd Domboski staring at the hole he nearly fell through. (Credit: Evansville Courier & Press)

Taking a Step Back

Coal seam fires are nothing new. There are thousands of underground fires burning throughout the world right now. Causes for these fires can be either natural (e.g. spontaneous combustion, lightning, wildfires) or man-made (frictional heat from machinery, mining subsidence, loose electric cables, domestic fires, various acts of negligence). But regardless of the cause, the majority of these fires happen in mines dug by people, so we cannot blame nature for the damages. Estimates say over 40 tons of mercury (as well as various other pollutants) are released annually as a result of these fires.

Outside view of a coal fire (China)

But in addition to the obvious health, safety, and environmental concerns, the economic impacts can also be extensive. Coal fires are difficult and often impossible to control, thus rendering large portions of mines unsalvageable and burning away countless tons of non-renewable resources.

In the case of Centralia, the fires are expected to last up to 250 more years burning across 3,700 acres of underground deposits. It's unfortunate because in this case, the fire could have been prevented if more care was taken initially (both by the town in preventing the fire, and the political agencies in acting to solve the problem). It may have kept the town on the map and saved the state and government millions of dollars.

Today, there is little left of the town except for paved roads and fields. Smoke and steam still rises from cracks in the ground around the town (here's some interesting, granted 10 year-old, footage of Centralia from Discovery Chanel). But the danger signs and metal steam vents that remain certainly give the place an eery presence and atmosphere - certainly eery enough for a horror movie.

References

InfoMine - Coal Fires

Offroaders.com - Centralia Pennsylvania

Stormchaser.ca - Fire Down Below

West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey - Centralia (pdf)