American town that burned for 49 years

Heading northbound on Highway 61 in the United States, it suddenly took a short detour in front of a small town in Pennsylvania. Someone once tried to bypass here and enter the town, only to find an unexplained road closure sign in front of him. Where the highway bypasses, there are overgrown streets and warning signs: Here are the remains of the city of Centralia -

　　In 1962, a sanitation worker finished cleaning a few streets as usual. He took easy steps and pulled the garbage truck to the landfill. This landfill was converted from an abandoned mine, which is not uncommon in this town that was once dominated by coal mining. The sanitation worker set a pile of garbage on fire as usual, and then was busy doing other things, but at this particular time and place, he made a big mistake: what he didn't expect was that there was an exposed anthracite vein in the ground beneath his feet...

　　The highly flammable coal was ignited in an instant, and the fire fighters who arrived quickly put out the blaze. But they didn't know that although the fire was ostensibly extinguished, the flames continued to burn deep in the coal. Soon, it quickly spread underground and moved to surrounding coal mines. Under the city of Centralia, a huge brazier was born!

　　Before long, personnel from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources sensed the seriousness of the matter, and they began to consider drilling holes in the earth's crust to determine the severity of the fire and its temperature. As a precautionary measure, the project, which involved installing gas detectors in homes in the affected area, was met with complaints from some residents, who believed it hindered the protection of personal privacy, but soon after, The object of this complaint changed from the government to the increasingly high levels of carbon monoxide in the air.

　　In 1969, the fire still showed no signs of going out. Attempts to cut off the flames with trenches or seal them with clay were unsuccessful.

　　In 1972, the stationmaster of a gas station put a thermometer in an underground oil reservoir and found that the temperature there had reached 180 degrees Fahrenheit (about 82 degrees Celsius). That is to say, under the scorching of the underground flames, the entire gas station is in danger of exploding at any time.

　　It has been 10 years since the sanitation worker ignited the garbage. Over the years, the local government has tried to water the coal fire, plug the fire with concrete, and even dig up the burning coal. Many people died in the fire as a result of the firefighting operation. One day in 1981, a 150-foot-deep sinkhole suddenly appeared at the feet of a 12-year-old boy, who was nearly killed by the enormous heat and high levels of carbon monoxide. Countless toxic substances gradually pierced through small holes in the ground. Panicked people began to realize that this would not be the end - something more terrifying was about to happen.

　　At the same time, this group of flames that burned for a long time also began to attract the attention of all over the world. Considering that the previous huge fire-fighting measures were futile, the government had to decide to relocate the 1,100 residents of the town. The cost was $42 million.

　　The immigration plan was in the works for a long time. It was not until 1982 that the immigration action began. Within a year, most of the people moved out of here, but 10 people insisted on staying. The city of Centralia has completely become a "hellfire town".

　　The fire is still burning 100 meters below the surface, with an area of about 142 hectares and is still expanding. Now only deer, bears and wild turkeys, moles and squirrels can be seen in the town of Centralia. Most of the vacant houses and buildings had been razed to the ground when they left that year, and the U.S. Postal Service even removed the zip code for the Centralia area. Game makers borrowed the scene here to make the greatest thriller game "Silent Hill". When it comes to "the former Soviet Union has Chernobyl, what does the United States have", the correct answer is "Centralia".

　　Some optimists left behind "time boxes" with hopes for the future when they evacuated the city of Centralia. Some will return to the city on fire in 2016, when the time box will be opened to welcome the return of the Aboriginal people here.

　　But until now, no one has been able to extinguish the flame in an unmistakable way, and researchers predict that 2016 will be nothing more than the hope of those optimists, as the fire will continue to burn for centuries.