Centralia sat atop the anthracite coal deposits that fueled America's Industrial Revolution. By 1962, most mines had closed, leaving a labyrinth of tunnels beneath the town. The abandoned Buck Mountain coal vein connected to the surface through old strip mines and waste pits.

On May 27, 1962, the Centralia Borough Council hired five volunteer firefighters to clean up the town landfill - located in an old strip mine - by burning the garbage. This was standard practice. But this time, the fire found its way into an exposed coal seam and spread underground. Attempts to extinguish it failed. The fire escaped.

The fire spread through the Buck Mountain coal vein, which averages 50 feet thick in places. Underground, the coal burns at temperatures exceeding 1,000°F. The fire consumes coal, vents gases, and opens new paths through the honeycomb of abandoned mine tunnels.

At the surface, residents began noticing problems. Vegetation died. Ground temperatures rose. Steam vented from cracks in the earth. Carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide seeped into basements. The fire was invisible but omnipresent - a demon burning beneath their feet.

In 1981, 12-year-old Todd Domboski was walking through his grandmother's yard when a sinkhole opened beneath him. He clung to a tree root as a 150-foot pit filled with hot steam gaped below. His cousin pulled him to safety. The ground that nearly swallowed Todd registered 350°F.

The incident shocked Pennsylvania into action. In 1984, Congress allocated $42 million to relocate Centralia's residents. Most accepted buyouts and left. The town was condemned. Houses were demolished. By 2017, the population had dropped from 2,700 to fewer than 10 people who refused to leave.

Today, Centralia is a ghost town bisected by cracked and smoking roads. Steam vents from fissures. The old highway through town - Route 61 - was closed and rerouted; its abandoned section, buckled by heat and covered with graffiti, has become a destination for urban explorers.

The few remaining residents live among empty lots where houses once stood. The cemetery remains - its occupants undisturbed by the fire burning 300 feet below. The town's grid of streets still exists, leading to nowhere. Centralia has become a monument to an accident that can never be undone.

The Centralia fire cannot be extinguished. It has access to approximately 3,700 acres of coal reserves. Engineers estimate it could burn for 250 years or more. The fire continues to spread at roughly 75 feet per year, threatening adjacent coal deposits and communities.

Centralia has inspired horror fiction - it was the model for the film 'Silent Hill.' But the real Centralia needs no embellishment. It's a place where the earth is literally on fire, where a routine garbage burn created a disaster that will outlive everyone who witnessed it. The fire that started before most Americans were born will still be burning when their grandchildren are gone.