13 American Towns That Literally Vanished But Left Eerie Legacies Behind

2. Centralia, Pennsylvania: The Fire That Never Dies

Centralia, Pennsylvania, tells a tale of a town consumed by an underground fire that still burns to this day. In 1962, a landfill fire accidentally ignited a coal seam beneath the town, leading to a subterranean inferno that proved impossible to extinguish. As the fire spread, toxic gases seeped into homes, and sinkholes opened up, making the town uninhabitable. Despite numerous attempts to control the blaze, the fire continued to burn, ultimately leading to the evacuation and demolition of most of the town's structures. Today, Centralia is a ghost town, with only a handful of residents remaining. The cracked, steaming roads and eerie graffiti-covered surfaces serve as a chilling reminder of the disaster that drove the town's inhabitants away. Centralia's story is a sobering example of how human negligence can lead to long-lasting environmental consequences.