Hell in PA: THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE - FIRES THAT AMERICA CAN'T PUT OUT

[WhiteFeather]

Anyone know anything about this place?
Lots of other interesting photos here as well

http://www.theamericannightmare.org/...ralia_A-D.html

FIRES THAT AMERICA CAN'T PUT OUT

THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE


Should you ever find yourself walking through the burned out forest in the dead of a very cold winter just outside what use to be Centralia, Pennsylvania, and feel like your feet are on fire, it's by no means an illusion. Just a few feet below the ground upon which you are walking, the earth is literally blazing with fire. It's an underground coal mine fire that now covers dozens of square miles. As pictured below, this underground coal mine fire has literally consumed the City of Centralia, Pennsylvania, and it now threatens Ashland, Pa, and other surrounding cities. If you continue walking you will eventually pass by several open fiery pits, which continue to belch fire and brimstone (sulfur) after forty years. The noxious fumes will make you ill.


THIS ONCE BUSY FOUR LANE HIGHWAY WAS RIPPED RIGHT DOWN THE CENTER AFTER WHICH IT CONTINUED TO BURN, UNTIL IT NOW LOOKS LIKE A HORROR SCENE


Be aware that in 1981 a teenager named Domboski was minding his own business when a fiery crater four feet wide opened up directly beneath him. It was 150 feet deep, filled with blazing fire, carbon monoxide, and other noxious gasses. Domboski clung to roots along the side of the fiery fissure until his cousin managed to pull him to safety. The hellish situation brought national press coverage to the town’s plight.
If you continue your walk, you will pass countless chimney vents where the government has drilled down into the earth and inserted vent pipes which allow this fire to exhaust its heat and noxious fumes into the atmosphere, to prevent the abyss underneath from exploding.





As noted from the photo on your left, these vents dot the landscape for as far as the eye can see. They're everywhere you care to go and everywhere you care to look. As is made obvious by the next photos, you can drive for miles and see nothing but destruction coming up from what seems to be the center of the earth. The implications of what you are now looking at are overwhelming.

Cities like Byrnesville, Pa, and others for miles around Centralia have had to be evacuated because of the toxic fumes. Fires and smoke just bellow out of the earth. One minute a house seems normal, and the next minute it might simply burst into flames without warning.

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THERE IS NO WAY TO PREDICT AN UNDERGROUND FIRE

In essence, Centralia, Pa, is being left to burn itself out. With 3,700 acres of coal underneath Centralia alone, experts estimate this fire will have enough fuel to burn for well over a thousand more years.
.
TO QUOTE HISTORIANS IN THE YEAR 2002:
"With its numerous abandoned homes and businesses, it seems Centralia’s only hope of ever coming back to life, is if the hell beneath it literally freezes over. With no further plans to even try to extinguish the fire, most modern maps no longer show a dot where Centralia once stood."

[sjl127]

It is quite fascinating. I don't like their title. It's just an underground fire in coal mines. No big deal.

[LastManOut]

Sure! The town is down to a few dozen residents. I forget what the cause of the fire was, but apparently some mistakes were made early on and made the fire worse. Supposedly there are numerous places in the world that have underground fires similar to the one in Centralia.

[P89]

I've read about these in Civil Engineering magazines.
Nobody knows what to do about it, not even the Army Corps of Engineers.
You would think it would be very high on DEP's list to address this problem.
You would think Rendell would be more intrested in solving this problem than trying to spend 45 million on bring a friggin' soccer team to PA.

[Slim Pickens]

I've actually been there myself, my grandfather took me there when I was a kid. Freaky stuff.

Speaking of freaky stuff, the website you pulled that from is freaky as hell!

Slim

[mikepro8]

LOL!!!!
I laugh because I live just a few miles from there, have been through there many times. So does another forum member, deth502. (He actually lives closer than I do.) Its in our proverbial "back yard." Cmon up someday and check it out for yourselves! Its really not as scary as they make it sound.
In fact, one of my co-workers grew up there and had to move when they evacuated the place. The fed gave certain residents a ton of money and land if they moved out during a certain time period. Most of them moved to what is now Den Mar Gardens, between Kulpmont and Mt. Carmel in Northumberland County. There are not many actual homes in what used to be Centralia. I havent been through there in about a year, though.
Ashland is a different story. Ashland is actually down hill from the fire, although just on the south side of the fire. There is a highway still in use that runs from Mt. Carmel through Centralia to Ashland that anyone can drive on and see the smoke and holes in the ground for themselves.

[Kenshin]

Maybe they should cause an explosion to cause a cave-in. I doubt it would smother the fire but hopefully slow it down. I can still remember the fire from when i was a kid traveling through the area and that was nearly 18 years ago.

[billamj]

Originally Posted by mikepro8

LOL!!!!
I laugh because I live just a few miles from there, have been through there many times. So does another forum member, deth502. (He actually lives closer than I do.) Its in our proverbial "back yard." Cmon up someday and check it out for yourselves! Its really not as scary as they make it sound.
In fact, one of my co-workers grew up there and had to move when they evacuated the place. The fed gave certain residents a ton of money and land if they moved out during a certain time period. Most of them moved to what is now Den Mar Gardens, between Kulpmont and Mt. Carmel in Northumberland County. There are not many actual homes in what used to be Centralia. I havent been through there in about a year, though.
Ashland is a different story. Ashland is actually down hill from the fire, although just on the south side of the fire. There is a highway still in use that runs from Mt. Carmel through Centralia to Ashland that anyone can drive on and see the smoke and holes in the ground for themselves.

Is that 61? We come up 61 to go to Knobels every year and I have been so tempted to just stay on it and work my way around that way.

[brewguy]

I used to ride quad up there a lot. I don't think it is really that unsafe. From what I understand the whole thing started from an exposed coal vein and a trash fire.

[deth502]

wow, thats some great fact finding by whoever wrote theat


damn, where do i start??

THIS ONCE BUSY FOUR LANE HIGHWAY WAS RIPPED RIGHT DOWN THE CENTER AFTER WHICH IT CONTINUED TO BURN, UNTIL IT NOW LOOKS LIKE A HORROR SCENE

1, its a 2 lane highway, and the "rip" is clearly along the shoulder.

yes, that is 61, if your soming to knobles from the south, youll be going through ashland on 61+54 together, at the top of ashland, 61 bears off to the right. if you follow that maybe 2-3 mi, youll come to the detour where the road is blocked off. that "dangerous section of road" that they have blocked off is maybe 1/2 mile.