This American town has been on fire underground for over 60 years

Beneath the small Pennsylvania town of Centralia, an underground coal fire has been burning continuously for more than 60 years — one of the longest-running environmental disasters in American history, and one that started with a routine cleanup.

In May 1962, officials ignited a landfill in an abandoned strip-mining pit to reduce trash ahead of Memorial Day. Instead of burning out, the flames reached the exposed Buck Mountain anthracite coal seam, igniting a fire that spread through a network of abandoned mine tunnels beneath the town and has continued burning ever since.

The fire forced most of Centralia’s residents to leave after a near-fatal sinkhole incident in 1981, when 12-year-old Todd Domboski was nearly swallowed by the ground before being pulled to safety by his cousin. Pennsylvania subsequently used federal funding to buy out most homeowners and demolish much of the town, leaving only a handful of residents today.

One of the fire’s active fronts has continued advancing at roughly 20 metres a year, a pace researchers say has remained remarkably consistent over decades — a reminder, scientists say, that some environmental disasters can outlast generations once they take hold in abandoned mining infrastructure.