PA Town Plagued with Underground Fire for over 40 years...

"The ruins of Centralia Pennsylvania no longer exists on some maps. The story began sometime in 1962 along the outskirts of town when trash was burned in the pit of an abandoned strip mine, which connected to a coal vein running near the surface. The burning trash caught the exposed vein of coal on fire. The fire was reported and thought to be extinguished but it apparently wasn't. The coal then began to burn underground. That was in 1962. For the next two decades, workers battled the fire, flushing the mines with water, excavating the burning material, backfilling, drilling again and again in an attempt to put the fire out or at least contain it. All efforts failed to do either. By the early 1980s the fire had affected about nearly 200 acres. An engineering study concluded in 1983 that the fire could burn for another century or even more and "could conceivably spread over an area of approximately 3,700 acres."
"Over 43 years and 40 million dollars later the fire still burns through old coal mines and veins under the town and the surrounding hillsides. The fire, smoke, fumes and toxic gases that came up through the back yards, basements and streets of Centralia practically ripped the town apart. Today Centralia is a near-ghost town with only a few remaining hold-outs who refused government offers of compensation."
http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/centralia.htm