Centralia, Pennsylvania (The Real Silent Hill): The Burning Town by Chris Chaos

Centralia, Pennsylvania: The Burning Town
by Chris Chaos

Centralia: The Pennsylvania abandoned town that has been burning for over 50 years. On May 27th, 1962 a fire started and has been raging ever since. Exact details are sketchy about how the fire actually started, but according to historical documents, it states that burning trash from the landfill set an exposed coal vein in an abandoned strip mine on fire.

The movie and video game SILENT HILL were based on this PA town.

 This small coal mining town used to be home to over 2,000 people, has now been just about completely abandoned, although a few residents still call this town home.

As of our last visit most of the houses and streets have been bulldozed and are reduced to a smoldering former shadow of themselves. You can see the toxic gas spewing from the cracks in the ground all over the area. A sign warns visitors to enter at their own risk.

Usually locations like this that attract visitors are heavily patrolled by the police to prevent vandalism or to stop teens from partying or hurting themselves. While we were documenting the location a police office approached us and asked us what were were doing. When he saw we were simply taking photos he wished us well and explained to us that he thought we may have been illegally dumping.

For just about 20 years firefighters have attempted to put out this massive fire, but as it being underground and with seemingly an endless line of fuel, this has proven very unsuccessful. Scientists state that there is enough coal to keep the fires burning for another 250 years.

Back in 1981, a 12 year old boy fell into one of the sinkholes and there have been growing concerns over the dangerous levels of carbon monoxide being released from the ground. After many years of this raging inferno burning underground, it has weakened the ground, causing the roads and concrete to crumble.

In 1993, congress set some $42 million aside to relocate the town's residents. The abandoned houses and buildings were bulldozed. Stuck in controversy some of the residents refused to leave. As of 2011 there were 9 residents fighting the state of PA to not evict them from their homes and have their properties razed to the ground.

Commonwealth Court has denied another attempt by remaining property owners in Centralia to keep their land. Borough Council President Stephen Hynoski states that the fire has died down and the air quality of Centralia is the same as in Lancaster. He also has a suit pending in U.S. Middle District Court that claims the commonwealth's devious plot of obtaining mineral rights to the anthracite coal that is supposedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

An interesting thing occurred while we were documenting the location. There is a church (see photo below) in the next town over. Centralia is known for the smoke escaping from the ground but over near the church this was not the case. There was no smoke visible, no one was smoking a cigarette and there were no vehicles spewing exhaust. in some of the photos there were massive amounts of smoke and in others there were none. We did not see any smoke/mist with our naked eyes, it was only when we reviewed the photographs. But there is something physically there based on the way the flash of the camera interacted with the smoke. (More pics of these are available, just ask) 

**Note: It was snowing/sleeting during the night time.

A Video:

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)