Centralia, Pennsylvania, a former coal mining town, has been burning for almost 60 years

With coal supplies beneath the town, the fire could burn for another 250 years. Centralia, Pennsylvania, a former coal mining town, has been burning for almost 60 years. The town council burned a landfill in 1962 without realizing it connected to underground mine shafts, which ignited a coal seam that is still burning. Pennsylvania spent $7 million trying to put out the fire before giving up in the 1990s. Despite the risks, about five people still live there. Centralia’s population has declined from 1,000 in 1980 to five residents in 2020