Coal Mine Fire Still Burning, Decades After Driving Residents Out

Pennsylvania’s Centralia Coal Mine fire is among more than 240 underground coal seam fires in the United States.

Graffiti invokes the title of the classic horror film "Silent Hill" on this abandoned side street in Centralia, Pa., on Oct. 12, 2025. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

CENTRALIA, Pa.—Where cars and trucks once rolled by, graffiti now sprawls across desolate, cracked pavement, and weeds push through the abandoned sidewalks leading nowhere.

Centralia Borough, Pennsylvania, endures as a modern ghost town, its empty streets and old foundations stubbornly resisting the slow advance of nature.