Imagine the scene...
You're watching your young son innocently playing in the back yard when suddenly the earth opens and he disappears screaming into a pit where flames and fumes that would put Hell itself to shame spew out.
Fortunately, the child is saved by his own quick-thinking and the help of neighbours but soon other holes open up in the town taking with them gardens, even entire streets, and noxious fumes waft over the small community.
And all because, twenty years earlier, some unnamed twit threw a lighted cigarette (probably) into a garbage pile and ignited an undergound coal seam.
The town is Centralia, Pennslyvania and the fire is still burning forty years after the initial ignition. When the situation became intolerable most people moved to neighbouring towns with the help of federal compensation but, incredibly, some families chose to remain - and are still there living with the toxic fumes and hot, unstable ground.
Some links here and here
I've got a few questions I'd like to ask about this (in no particular order and I don't mind which direction if indeed any this thread goes):
Given a similar situation, would you choose to stay?
- if so, why?
Has there been any litigation concerning the Centralia fire?
Are there similar fires burning elsewhere in the world (there's a few in PA and I vaguely remember one in China)?
- is this the longest-running such fire?
And... several others which I'll add later when one of those "that reminds me" moments strikes me.
Jane.
phew... serious post... need to lie down now
You're watching your young son innocently playing in the back yard when suddenly the earth opens and he disappears screaming into a pit where flames and fumes that would put Hell itself to shame spew out.
Fortunately, the child is saved by his own quick-thinking and the help of neighbours but soon other holes open up in the town taking with them gardens, even entire streets, and noxious fumes waft over the small community.
And all because, twenty years earlier, some unnamed twit threw a lighted cigarette (probably) into a garbage pile and ignited an undergound coal seam.
The town is Centralia, Pennslyvania and the fire is still burning forty years after the initial ignition. When the situation became intolerable most people moved to neighbouring towns with the help of federal compensation but, incredibly, some families chose to remain - and are still there living with the toxic fumes and hot, unstable ground.
Some links here and here
I've got a few questions I'd like to ask about this (in no particular order and I don't mind which direction if indeed any this thread goes):
Given a similar situation, would you choose to stay?
- if so, why?
Has there been any litigation concerning the Centralia fire?
Are there similar fires burning elsewhere in the world (there's a few in PA and I vaguely remember one in China)?
- is this the longest-running such fire?
And... several others which I'll add later when one of those "that reminds me" moments strikes me.
Jane.
phew... serious post... need to lie down now