
American Lost & Found05/18/2026, 19:06:35
A landfill fire on May 27, 1962, lit a coal seam under Centralia, Pennsylvania. The town — once home to more than 1,400 people — spent the next three decades slowly hollowing out. Today, five residents remain. The fire is still burning underground, and experts say it could burn for another 250 years.
Centralia, Pennsylvania — The Town That Burned from the Inside
A landfill fire on May 27, 1962, lit a coal seam under Centralia, Pennsylvania. The town — once home to more than 1,400 people — spent the next three decades slowly hollowing out. Today, five residents remain. The fire is still burning underground, and experts say it could burn for another 250 years.
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