In the famous horror game Silent Hill, the protagonist has to wander around in an abandoned mining town inspired by Centralia, Pennsylvania in order to find his missing daughter. What’s more, it’s also been said to have been the sight of several hauntings. The reason for its rather infamous reputation is because of an underground fire that’s still burning today. It’s caused many to document the fire, from Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire by David DeKok, to Slow Burn, A Photodocument of Centralia, Pennsylvania by Renee Jacobs. So what is the history behind Centralia, Pennsylvania? And why is it important today? 

The fire at Centralia began in 1962, when local government officials gathered to try to decide just how they were going to clean up the landfill that had slowly been building up for the past year. The goal of the meeting was to stop illegal dumping, as well as introduce new regulations that could close down another dump at St. Ignatius Cemetery. They decided to pass a law that regulated landfills and their uses in mining. More importantly, the law introduced inspectors to go out to check these landfills. One of these inspectors, George Segaritus, noticed the holes in the floor and walls within the mines. Though the town attempted to clean up the landfill, a fire ignited inside. It managed to spread throughout the town, and though noncombustible material was thrown into the landfill to try to extinguish the fire, dumping still occurred. 

Interestingly enough, even with the looming threat the fire posed, the Council decided that they would rather hide how the fire had started. Despite many excavation attempts, the fire continued to spread, and soon the town had to evacuate. Though many residents evacuated, a few stayed in spite of the toxic fumes. It wasn’t until the governor ordered an evacuation that everyone was forced to leave. 

Centralia is now a ghost town that continues to attract visitors, as well as inspire a number of different haunting sights and stories. According to David DeKok, an author who has been following the events in Centralia, the fire was so hot that no person could live there. The town has been abandoned, filled with cracks and holes and the like. It is haunting, to say the least, like a cemetery in the middle of urban America. It’s a representation of the slow-building consequences that humans have made over the last years. While the origins of the fire remain a mystery, it’s safe to assume that it was a culmination of both manmade and natural causes. Even so, there have been efforts to try to put out the fire, with Pennsylvania spending around $1.4 million dollars in 2014 to extinguish the fire. 

While Centralia has been the basis of Silent Hill, it’s also been the sight of some horrific tragedies. From the landfills that exacerbated the fires, to the town’s attempts to put the fire out, or at the very least contain it, Centralia will forever be known as the town with a burning fire down below, a fire that will take centuries to put out. It’s now a town shrouded by an eerie silence reminiscent of what once was.