Many years ago, Centralia in Pennsylvania was a bustling town with residents, shops, and a thriving coal mining scene. The city was once a bustling mining town with a growing population of 2,800.

Today, Centralia is one of the nation’s most famous ghost towns, and an underground fire that started more than 60 years ago is still burning today.

The fire began on May 27, 1962, when the town conducted its yearly controlled burn of the local landfill before Memorial Day weekend.

Workers evacuated, and residents assumed it would burn out on its own, but that wasn’t the case. Till today, the blaze is still burning. Most of the buildings that made up the streets are gone, and smoke escapes up from below the surface.

A local news outlet reports that less than five people still live there as they didn’t want to flee the place they called home.

According to the outlet, the fire that still burns releases poisonous gasses into the air. There is, however, a constant fear of the ground collapsing in. All this has earned the town the name “Real Silent Hill.”

Colleen Dzwonczyk, 63, who was born and raised in Centralia and is one of the last surviving former residents of the town, explained how the disaster started.

She explained that her family’s house was one of the few houses closest to where the fire started.

She recalled that her father, John Coddington, was the former mayor of the town and owned a local gas station that was attached to their home.

In 1979, Coddington noticed he wasn’t making the profit margins he once was and knew something was wrong. Colleen’s brother, Joseph, went to the basement to check on the gas tanks, only to discover the walls were scorching. 

He then called for his father, who took the gas temperature in his underground containers. The gas measured to be more than 120-130 degrees above normal level.

In 1981, residents in the impact zone were told that the mine fire situation was under control but that they had to keep their windows open to allow oxygen flow.

As time passed, the ground grew hotter and hotter, reaching up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit in places, with residents starting to notice health issues.

This resulted in many evacuating the area and leaving their homes behind.

According to reports, efforts to put out the fire have come to no avail, and experts revealed there is enough coal to fuel the fire for another 250 years.

As of today, the federal government has revoked the ZIP code for Centralia due to the dangers it poses.