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Centralia
The Pennsylvania town on top of a burning mine
Centralia, in the anthracite coal region of eastern Pennsylvania, is a near-abandoned borough that sits above a coal-seam fire that has been burning underground since 1962. Once home to more than 2,700 people, it was largely condemned and depopulated in the 1980s as the fire spread, releasing toxic gases and opening sinkholes. A handful of residents remained under a legal agreement, and the fire may burn for another century or more.
The town's streets and abandoned stretch of old Route 61 — cracked and steaming, once covered in graffiti — became a magnet for curious visitors, and Centralia is widely cited as an inspiration for the fictional town in the Silent Hill games.