Places That Are Famous for the Strangest Reasons

Imagine a fire that never goes out. That’s the reality for Centralia, a modern-day ghost town in Pennsylvania. In May 1962, a fire started in the sprawling coal mines beneath the town. It’s been burning ever since. By the 1980s, with smoke venting from cracks in the ground and the land itself growing unstable, most of the residents had to leave. The government bought their homes and the town was essentially erased. Centralia’s bizarre, slow-motion disaster turned it into a symbol of unstoppable decay, a place where the ground itself is smoldering away.