In the US, there is a city that has been continuously lit 47 years

In May 1962, the City Council Centralia (Pennsylvania, USA) hired five volunteer firefighters to clean the city landfill, located in an abandoned open-pit mine near the cemetery «Odd Fellows».

Firefighters, as they have done in the past, set fire to garbage heaps, allowing them to burn for some time, was extinguished. But because not completely extinguished the fire began to smolder deeper deposits of debris and, eventually, the fire spread through the hole in the shaft on the other abandoned coal mines beneath Centralia. Attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful. Over time, people began to complain of worsening health, provoked by the release of carbon monoxide.





In 1979, local residents learned the true scale of the problem, when the owner of the gas station put the probe into one of the underground tanks to check the fuel level. When he pulled out the dipstick, it was very hot - the temperature of the gasoline in the tank was about 77, 8 ° C.

Statewide attention to the fire began to grow and reached its climax in 1981, when 12-year-old Todd Domboski fell in an earthen pit 1.2 meters wide and 45 meters deep that suddenly He opened beneath his feet. The boy was saved by his older brother, who pulled him out of the mouth of the hole. The incident quickly drew national attention to Centralia as the investigation team (which included a representative of the state senator and head of the service silo safety) witnessed the incident.

In 1984, Congress allocated more than $ 42 million for training and the resettlement of citizens. Most of the residents accepted the offer and moved to the neighboring settlements of Mount Carmel and Ashland. A few families opted to stay despite warnings from state officials.

In 1992, the PA has demanded permission to expropriation of private property throughout the city, citing the unsuitability of buildings for use. A subsequent attempt by residents of the court to make any solution to the problem failed. In 2002, the US Postal Service has canceled postcode town - 17927.

Centralia virtually no inhabited houses. Most of the buildings were demolished, and this area now looks like a meadow with several paved streets through it. Most of the city is covered with thickets. The only remaining church in the city of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Greek Catholic diocese weekly Saturday night service holds. The city has four cemeteries.



The only sign of the fire, which covers an area of ​​approximately 1, 6 km ² and is distributed on four fronts, are low round metal steam vents in the south of the town and several signs warning of underground fire, unstable soils and carbon monoxide gas. You can also see the smoke and steam coming from an abandoned portion of Pennsylvania Routes 61 (it was closed in the 1990s after being on the road there are several large cracks) in areas near the cemetery, located on a hill, and other cracks in the ground located throughout the city. Trails Route 61 has been changed, and was built bypass road that goes to the side of the deserted city. However, the underground fire is still burning, and it will continue until an indefinite point in the future. No attempt to extinguish the fire is taken. There's enough coal to the fire lasted for more 250 years.

Centralia was the inspiration of the town of Silent Hill, where the action is the eponymous computer game and movie.





Source: ru.wikipedia.org

via factroom.ru