The Last Residents of Centralia, The Town That's Burned For 40 Years (2003)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ก.พ. 2019
- Home Sweet Home (2003) - In the old mining area of Pennsylvania, die-hards are refusing to leave a town that only barely exists.
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In Centralia the main highway lies cracked and gashed; a noxious cocktail of carbon monoxide and other fumes pours out. The town is on fire. A vein of coal under the town has smouldered at 400ºC since 1962, creating weak roads and poisoning the air. The Government wants the residents to leave - much against their wishes. “They keep telling us we’re in danger - it’s their imagination!” charges 86 year old town mayor Mamar Mervine. “I think it’s a conspiracy to get the coal,” adds lifelong resident Joe Moyer. Some estimates put the total at 40 million tonnes of high grade fuel beneath Centralia. Despite the danger, it seems there’s no place like home.
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ABC Australia - Ref. 1485
The older couple being interviewed at around the 7:00 minute mark in the video are Lamar Mervine (Former Mayor of Centralia PA) and his wife, Lanna Smith. Lamar(93) passed away on Jan. 1, 2010, and his wife Lanna had died on Feb. 6, 2008. To anyone reading this, remember that life is limited in duration, so, enjoy it to the fullest. God bless these beautiful souls.
93. Very dangerous place huh
@@DP-rx8bd yepp. That further reinforces what Lamar and his wife Lanna mentioned about the government wanting to take over the place.
Thank you.
This was produced in 2003, and since then, the government made an agreement with the remaining residents that they could continue to live in their homes for the remainder of their lives then when they pass away, their house would be demolished. . Right now there are a handful of people left, probably fewer than 6 and all that remains of the town are maybe one or two houses, the church seen at 2:41, the municipal building, the cemetery and the grid of roadways.
If I was born in this town and lived there for 70 years, I think I would do the same. I would have asked that I be left alone and that I could live in my town for the few years that I would have left to live.
Same
I have researched centralia with a particular interest in the town BEFORE the fire. It seemed so beautiful and quaint. A place I would have loved to retire to.
Personally, I would rather move to a condo or retirement community somewhere nicer, or at least not an abandoned coal town with a coal fire burning underneath it. Seems like such a miserably bleak and lonely way to spend your last years vs. being around other people and having things to do.
It took an Australian company to produce the best news piece I’ve seen so far on what happened to this American town. Nicely done.
Australian news had always the best. Really crazy stuff
th-cam.com/video/Qj5LjacccJ0/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=Part-TimeExplorer
That doco is only 2 months old and very good if you get a chance to watch it
I've noticed lately that a lotta legitimate US news stories are coming out of Australia. Thank you.
The best piece on centralia is called "The town that was". Great documentary.
They lived in Centralia and went to a play about what Centralia once was. Joseph J. Moyer, Rest In Peace, sir.
Sad to see them tearing down nice homes thats peoples history. Guess they figure they will add to the fire .
@@speedracer1945If they didn't the coal fire would probably have ignited them, spread to the forest and possible across the region, in that context, tearing down a few houses makes more sense. It's unfortunate for the people, but that's the risk of living over a coal seam.
This city's been burning over 40 yrs, and I cant keep my grill going for longer than a day.
They can send people to the moon, but they can’t put out a coal fire because it would cost too much? There’s something wrong with that logic!
Yep thats the US Government Plus the State of PA of course it makes no sense.
because there is no gain to it .
It sounds like they spent a lot of money but failed
@@stephanie3848 there is a big diference betqeen spending money tio gain something and wasting money to gain nothing at the end .
To be fair, even if they spent a decent chunk of money to dig out the coal and extinguish the fire, it would still be a dead coal town. It's not like stopping the fire would suddenly turn it into prime real estate and attract a bunch of developers - it would still be a dead little former mining town. Even when the fire initially started the town had been on the decline, so at this point there's really not much point in throwing good money at it.
I still remember driving through on old 61 as a kid in the early 90s. It still had a decent amount of people then. However, in 1992 they started forcing people out.
I remember when it was a functioning town in the seventies! I remember the houses started disappearing in the nineties!
@@isabelnavaro6322Before my time I am an 80s baby
I just visited there today. It is spooky
Anybody still there today 2020 ?
@@holoholopainen1627 As of 2019 there were I believe 3 homes that had a total of 5 residents.
Yeah there are still 2-3 homes. Im 5 miles over the mtn from them in the farm country to the north. They drove thru the covered bridge below my house.
@@williamwertman24How Big is The Area - That You cant live on ? Howfar is The Next Town ?
@@Jason1Pa Could these People relocate to Australia ? Is Not that Burning HOT - Down Under !
*Are we in danger?* She asks as they walk through toxic steam!
😂😂😂
exactly...no protection no respirators...but it's dangerous!!
Only as dangerous as an unfiltered Pall Mall.
rofl i thought the same
I assume they must drive out of town for food and stuff. I mean, they don't even have a postal service so they can't order anything online.
This is a great place to see. Do some research before you get there. We went in August 2022. It is hard to imagine the town almost had 3K people at one time. And while the fire has moved on, there are 3 building left in town. A church up on the hill, the municipal building, and 1 home with 5 people. The remnants of the town are there, YOU have to find them, and you really need to look. I would suggest taking a picture of what the old town looked like, so you can follow the streets. And graffiti Highway is no more. They covered it with dirt. And it you want to walk where the highway was, keep in mind the police patrol the area and they will fine you.
I just went on Sunday and yes Graffiti Highway is gone, didn't know that going in. Was still neat to explore the town, bumped into other tourists as well
Pardon my ignorance - what will the Police fine you?
An abandoned coal town on fire is probably way down my list of places to see, but you do you.
Obviously if that 86 year old man has been living in the house that he was born in during the entire 40+ years that the fire has burned...it's NOT dangerous enough to leave. I wouldn't leave if my whole life was spent there. Leave these poor innocent elderly people alone!
he died long ago....
Yeah you're probably right, breathing poison gas for 80 years probably isn't dangerous at all. These people are ultra smart
@@adamcoeLol, this. Whether they lived or not is immaterial, breathing in that coal smoke all those years definitely has had deleterious effects on their lungs/heart etc.
If this happened nowadays with everyone having smart phones, internet access and LAWYERS everywhere, it would have turned out totally different in my opinion. HOWEVER, a buyout of $100,000 for a $10,000 house is pretty significant. If today I was offered $2,000,000 for my $200,000 house I'd probably take it...
Others interviewed were offered less than 11k for a value of 35-50k
If it had happened nowadays the fire would have probably been extinguished within a few weeks. It was government incompetence that led to this.
Hey this is the lady on 60 minutes in Australia. They have the best videos.
If my hometown had an active coal seam underneath it and sulphur and gas being spewed into the air, I would say "thanks for the memories" and move. There are more pleasant places to spend your golden years than an abandoned, burning town. Sounds like such a lonely, miserable experience.
Joe was gone before this was even posted.
I’ve been to Centralia before the graffiti highway was covered with dirt.
As of April 2022 there are only 3 houses left or atleast that's all I saw when I drove through. The graffiti highway has been covered and blocked so it's not accessible. There are a couple of cemeteries and stop signs still standing at the end of abandoned streets. Other than that there isn't much to see.
Is it scary driving through there, would you advise against stopping the car and having a look around? I mean, being that rural and deserted no one would "hear you scream" if you know what I mean.
@@jockejocke1 it’s not bad. There’s only 5 people living there and a lot of abandoned churches and buildings . I live in the surrounding area
@@victorious521Is the firehouse still standing?
@@infjintegrityvsnarcissism7295 I believe so. City officials are trying to keep people out of there - because it’s pretty much a ghost town
When I was in high school me and my friends drove up to take a look (after we visited NYC) that was 1990 and a lot of the town was still there.
the guy at 14:00 sounds like mike judge when he does impressions (creator of beavis and butthead king of the hill)
I really wish they would leave those residents alone! They love their home and don't care about the risks. I kinda want to live there, too.
I see it every day, people just can't leave others alone.
Especially those in power.
These people want to live there, I'm sure they are aware of dangers but their love for home beats that, just let them be, don't help them, don't bother them.
@@Priest they are citizens of the USA so they need to abide by laws still and if the town is deemed dangerous then yea they should've left Years ago. there's nothing left for them there
The Government took their houses because it said that the cleaning was to costly for the government. Very sad.
The full story is a little more complicated. In the early stages of the fire, a bunch of Pennsylvania bureaucratic stupidity resulted in the fire not being put out in a timely fashion. The state kept treating it like a public works project, with budget constraints, rather than a fire that needed to be put out. At one point, the estimated costs to finish the job of isolating the fire and putting it out, was around 450,000 dollars, inflation adjusted, but squabbling over budget resulted in nothing being done. By 1967, the cost (again, inflation adjusted) to fully trench and stop the fire had risen to 38 million dollars (still a justifiable price to pay to save a whole town). The fire eventually spread directly under the town, and by that point, the state and federal tax payers were paying (in 1981 dollars) something around $2 million (inflation adjusted) just in yearly monitoring costs, and the total cost to put out the fire was estimated to be well into the billion dollar range in today's money (e.g. no longer feasible from a cost standpoint).
Ultimately, the state and federal tax payers ended up spending 42 million dollars, throughout the mid 80's to mid 90's, moving everyone out. Adjusting for inflation (averaged over 15 years), they spent ~ 2 1/2 times as much money (95 million) to move everyone out, as it would have cost to put the fire out in the late 60's and early 70's. In the end, the sad story of Centralia boils down to two lessons: deal with problems quickly, as costs to address problems tend to escalate exponentially; and don't wait for the US federal government to solve your problem, as they'll usually fail to make any decision, and once they do, it will be the wrong one and/or far too late.
Don’t I wish they could have built a brand new town close by
They also forgot to mention nearby Byrnesville had to be evacuated completely
The other places always get forgot, 1000KM+ had to be evacuated after chernobyl, people only ever focus on pripyat.
Google shamokin Pa.
Seems like they could generate power with all that fee heat, what a waste.
I just watched the 1982 documentary narrated by Martin Sheen on Centralia
I wonder if the residents even still talk to other people
I’ve never even been in a room
Is there a list of the last residents I've been told I had family who stayed til the end,I assume they passed.
Iv read a few articals about a few years old...sadly cant re. wear I read them but I think as of 2017 at least there wear about 5-6 residents left. a few moved back despite the Goverment saying they could not ( a few men and women who would have been kids and teens once they were told to get out. but yeah I think the enderly residants showed in this film are all gone sonce many seemed to belong to the first 1-2 generations of the 20'th centry and those 2 generations on the whole are all dead now. the reaper is now sowing the so called greatest generation but all those born from 1900- 1929 are pretty much gone or as good as.
I can understand not wanting to leave but you're not getting any healthier by staying
12:06 when a man loves his land
I know that part choked me up a little…
"Rural Pennsylvania: just a few hours drive from the crowded streets of New York" Um...try...Philadelphia? And it's much closer, I've been there a bunch of times. Ponce.
It's only a few hours away from NYC too.
"No city in the world matters besides NYC." - pop culture in general
NYC is very close to Scranton, it is a pretty short train ride to Hoboken, NJ when the commuter trains still ran. Closer than Philly in some cases.
@@timofeegraaay8165 NYC is at least two hours from Scranton, how do you consider that CLOSE? Seriously? Philadelphia is closer for chrissakes! The train ride from Hoboken to NYC? Yep, THAT is short, I grew up in Bayonne, I know it's close but Scranton is NOT close to NYC in anyways...unless you consider an hour + close somehow! :-/
@@timofeegraaay8165 Sorry but Scranton is NOT close to NYC, unless you consider an hour and a half if not two hours from there close. Get your facts straight...Scranton IS close to Wilkes-Barre but it is NOT close to NYC...NYC is about two hours to the east of Scranton, get your facts and stats right...Hoboken IS a short ride to NYC but Scranton is NOT close to NYC...get real.
The old part of Route 61 was that closed is now known as the “Graffiti Highway” due to the amounts of graffiti left on it. In 2020, the government decided to stop the trespassing onto it once and for all by covering with over 1,000 mounds of dirt.
R.I.P. Pete!
It’s amazing how different it is compared to the rest of the world. It’s different here in NY, I go to pa a lot in the summer and fall I have property in Tower City which is about 20 minutes east of centralia, good to see they let the name stay on the map.
I wonder what was in the time capsule. Did anyone ever open it?
they opened it in 2014 or 16..
Sad
One would think the government would consider trying to harness’s this mine fire to produce electricity or something? If this things supposed burn for like another hundred or two hundred more years, then why not at least, try use it for something good? That’s a lot heat, smoke, and steam to just let go to waste for nothing.
Interesting it’s mainly Orthodox. I hope they still tend to the graves, unless the fire spread under the cemetery.
I think the town was mainly german irish n polish
A documentary I watched they go back yearly on memorial day. Not sure if still the case.
watch A Town That Was....
No it's not Orthodox, it is Ukrainian Catholic
10:21 The face that man makes while his wife is talking...😅
who gave the thumbs down.. how do you thumb down a video like this.
It's still burning.
Could have had a history museum here and started rebuilding in areas fairly safer... with nowadays technology, I’m fairly certain that life could be sustainable. Smh
ya know how Florida has dangers of sinkholes from lime deposits underground from being underwater. Yeah. They worry about their entire roads and grounds collapsing from the fires. There really is no safe way to maintain that place besides taking Geology reports on the ground underneath. Besides the fact the air is toxic. It's just not an ideal place to live and the museum would serve the municipality but since its seized by the PA government it wouldn't serve much to garnering funds to rebuilding the towns.
Really what is the point? There is nobody alive to move back. The people who were displaced got money for their homes and property so its not like they could move back. You've had multiple subsidence, even recent ones and really no telling when a large one could open up. At this point the logical thing to do is re-route the road and get whatever coal is not already burned.
IIt would be nice but the ground is too unstable, the roads often collapse in many spots and it being a torist attraction with tousends and thousands of visitors a year would be too much of a danger
@@Robert08010 sad but true
2:12 that’s the bridge from beatleguise lmao
No it's not - the real bridge from Beetlejuice is in Vermont. (and was covered only for the movie).
@@Geekywitch nerd...😂
@@Crazyjn Proudly! :)
Wonder if the 71 year old man is still alive? He'll be 91 or so in 2022.
He passed away according to another documentary I’ve seen. I believe it was called “The Town That Was” if I remember correctly.
What year was this?
2003
Oh, the government as greedy as they are, the people who are left kudos to you for standing your ground. As far as being squatters as the reporter stated she is a pos, these people have their homes and they love living and no one including the greedy government should take that away. They make a choice to stay leave them alone and stop reporting on them.
yes, the greedy government, they've obviously profited massively from this. how dare they try to keep people safe from poison gas and a massive fire! what a bunch of dicks. the geniuses in this town are clearly living their best lives
It sounds like they spent a lot of money on it but failed
What a shame shame shame wow
Imagine not wanting to leave when you literally live on top of Silent Hill
Came from Joe Scott?
It’s their home
@@missmoxie9188 not much of a home left though
@Peter Berg
Where all you have is nothing, there's alot to go around.
Home doesn't mean much, nothing means much more.
The comments below disappoint. They don't get it. 😂
Did the time capsule get opened?
yes in 2014 or 2016..they opened it(I cant remember exactly.)
2014 (2 years earlier due to vandalism)
Any residents currently there still?
4 houses left, according to my relatives in the nearby towns. There are less than 10 people all elderly who are allowed to remain till their death.
11 people still live there
Me.
The interview lady said they are “practically squatters “...... How RUDE and incencitive. That’s their home 🏠.
The interviewer was jokingly saying the government might view them as squatters. But really, she was presenting them with a hypothetical concept; sarcasm and humor in her tone, and their response indicated they understood it. I mean, he’s the mayor after all, and he’s been asked all the questions by now, I’m sure. She was anything but condescending.
"If the Govt . wanted your coal, they'd have it already". Well I guess they do now, they own all that.
You're right they do want the coal and that guy lying through his back teeth working for the goverment
Mrlrobertson So why don’t you go burry yourself with your billions worth of coal. 🤣
so joes responsible for all that graffiti, ah hah!
Interesting to see the many Orthodox crosses on the grave stones.
@Rebel Georgia INFANTRY The cross with the single crossbeam is used in Western churches. The cross of the Eastern Orthodox Church has the smaller crossbeam at the top and a diagonal one at the lower part. The upper one represents Pilates inscription INRI, the middle one is where the hands are fastened and the lower is the footrest wher the feet are fastened. There were probably immigrants in this area from Eastern Europe or Russia.
The Church they showed was Orthodox.
@@DavidSmith-sb2ix There was a lot of people from the Ukraine!
It is actually Ukrainian Catholic
They should show Detroit how to do it.
Why does steam come out of the ground instead of smoke?
Its steam from the steamed steam
People have fallen through the ground onto the hot coal or ash.
I can’t believe I watched Mojo TH-cam and talked about best list of creepy video game which is Silent Hill was popular and read the comments and one of these told about Japanese learned the town by USA so they visited and script some town and realized I am from PA. So I checked Centralia PA. My god….
The Silent Hill game has no connection to this town.
What makes me curious is the Orthodox Church of all places.
Well, research the history and the early immigrant settlers. Then it might make sense lol
@@erikm8372 I don’t dare
It's not Orthodox, it is Ukrainian Catholic. There were a lot of Ukrainian immigrants that lived there that were Catholic
@@stephanie3848 ah, fascinating!
There is no one living in Centralia, just those waiting to die.
Land is just dirt, and dirt is not worth dying for.
That fire has never killed anyone. That’s their point.
@@handle-schmandle A 12 year old boy almost fell to his death when a hole opened in his back yard. Why wait until until someone dies?
@@tomasallende9583 The problem is that the subsidence you mention happened in 1981. The highway was rerouted in 1993. Since that time, thousands of tourists and urbexers have walked and driven all over that area without incident. If those people feel like they were lied to, I don’t blame them. Maybe it was a smart precaution to move out, but we definitely should not be mocking the ones who stayed.
Unless of course the government is trying to kill you first 🙄
@@handle-schmandle I'm not mocking them, but I find it odd that they are so emotionally involved with a piece of land that's devoid of people.
Spray the buildings down. Wouldn't want to cause a fire.
"If the government wanted your coal they'd have it already"...
So you're saying it's nit the government then thats after the coal.
Damm shame
Harness that heat generate power ect. Build smaller movable turbine generators to make power. the possibilities are endless. But no they will spend more money on it and get nothing out of it.
That capsule should have been set for the year 2212.
It was a quant little town
Is this the clean coal that Trump speaks of?
Maybe they'll be able to rebuild the town with all electric 😂
The same coal that Al Gorf said would melt the polar ice caps by 2013. 🤣
3:34 The man has an faint Irish accent despite being born in the US. Is that the common accent out there?
2021 centralia I wonder 💭
5
They can rebuild Japan and Germany after nuking and firebombing....but you cant fix the little town of Centralia....makes you wonder dont it????
I'm confused why do their accents sound Irish
Most of the residents are of Irish decent as most of There parents and grand parents were immigrants
History showed that majority of Irish immigrants that worked in the coal mines.
The only place where 15 people get to vote a Mare in.
Serpico...
4 people lefr from what I hear
that old inspector guy was ackin like a bell end...
in another 40 years they'll hope no one remembers this and build there all over again..watch..
I mean maybe they can put out the fire but they'd need to demolish most of the town, who's they?
YOU COULD HEAT ALL THE HOUSES IN THE NEXT COUNTY BY USING GEO THERMAL TECHNIQUES, TO BRING IN HEATED FLUIDS TO ALL THE NEXT COUNTY HOUSES
What I'm worried about is the government forcing the remaining residents out whether they want to leave or not and then coming in and destroying all that's left like the church the cemetery all of that I'm worried they're going to come in and destroy all of that without regarding any sense of decency just for the sake of making money and I mean we all know that's all the government does it's just make money while we suffer from it, getting nothing in return whatsoever
They reached a settlement which allows them to life rights. Once they die off their house is demolished.
That's how the government is which is allso why this country has the problems it does.sad what happened to this town
I know literally dozens of Federal government employees, most Senior Level Executives or at least GS 14 and not one of them wants to hurt the American citizens or our towns and communities. This is such hateful bullshit that I get sick of hearing it. Come work for the government, Federal or your state, see for yourself, do something good beside spreading lies and hate towards your fellow citizens who love this country and work our asses off for the likes of you.
Yep that sounds about right aswell
@@timofeegraaay8165 I've worked with government employees. I've yet to see one who worked their ass off.
aka silent hill
you could stop that fire easy by just cutting the hill in two, but nobody cares to do that. cut the vein and let it burn out? Dynamite deep and cut the coal vein?
you would not want to dynamite it but i think when I was in middle school about 15-17 years ago in class we talked about it and by that time the state of PA had given up trying to put it out and pretty much the best way to stop it will be to mine the coal that lays ahead of the fire. But you must Rember coal mineing is a slow and precise process you cant half ass it ess bc. coal is a valuable recorce more so than Oil.
@@e.jenima7263 yeah that might be the way to do it. What about this: Cut a new entrance ahead of the fire, then send in some people that can take some forms into the mine and pour a concrete wall in its path sealing it off, then seal off the original entrance. Might work...? Do a Boots and Coots type explosion to cave in the mine?
My dad had us visit thhere in 88. Quant town.
SILENT HILL !!!!!
As they are the owners and residents, it is designed for them to maintain, cherish as well as not to neglect its purpose, to bring it back to its glory, for its people. Planted by the waters by the word, as the waters cover the sea. The chief cornerstone is Godhead, bodily whole. KJV 1611 Preserved. Passed on from one generation to generation. To the young, for the younger, to the old, to the older, it is preservation, it should last for a lifetime. 2022 onwards, coal is replaced by renewable sources.