Fire underground

"Centralia, Pennsylvania, lived and died by anthracite coal. The town's population peaked at 2,761 in 1890, but by 1981 had dwindled to just over 1,000--not unusual for a Pennsylvania mining town. But today Centralia has no more than a dozen inhabitants, and they are expected to be gone before long. The reason: an underground fire that has burned since 1962 in the labyrinth of abandoned coal mines beneath Centralia, making parts of the town uninhabitable. By 1981 the fire was sending deadly gases into homes, making children sick, and one day a twelve-year-old boy dropped into a steaming hole…