Pocono News Section

Remaining Centralia Residents Burned Over Hastened Evictions

Remaining Centralia Residents Burned Over Hastened Evictions - Monday, February 15, 2010 at 11:13PM EST

Reported by: Joe Holden
Monday, Feb 15, 2010 @ 11:13pm EST

CENTRALIA, COLUMBIA COUNTY- Barely a shadow of what it once was, Centralia boasts a population of no more than a dozen people. Chased by a smoldering underground mine fire with a supposed lifetime's worth of fuel, most people were chased away decades ago. Their homes were demolished. The fire that ignited in 1962 has since been the subject of widespread chatter on internet ghost town websites and in other places.

The recent demolition of a longtime holdout's home has renewed fear of eviction for some of the most stubborn. They've remained in their homes through the appraisers, buyouts and threatened action by the state. But their road may be ending. The flattening of a home seems to signal the state's insistence that the town's residents finally move along.

During a visit to Centralia on a snowy Monday night, none of the remaining homeowners was willing to speak to us about the bleak situation. One referred us to his attorney in Harrisburg. Our call to that lawyer was not immediately returned. Another man, a relative of the homeowner, said his mother-in-law had stopped talking about the mine fire altogether. A knock at another home produced no results even though the homeowner was visible through the door's window. Some say the silence is out of frustration. A man who declined to give his name prompted us to help him. He said only after that would he speak to us. He wouldn't say how we could help.

According to measurements in neighboring towns, close two feet of snow fell last week. There was no sign of it in the smoking piles of dirt and rubble that mark the spot where fumes rise out of the ground from the mine fire.

Calls to the state were not immediately returned.