Town That Burned From Beneath ebook

In May 1962, the town council of Centralia, Pennsylvania, hired volunteer firefighters to clean up the town landfill by setting it on fire. It was a routine procedure, but they made a fatal mistake: the landfill sat atop an exposed vein of coal that connected to a vast labyrinth of abandoned mines beneath the town. The fire didn't go out. It went down. "The Town That Burned From Beneath" chronicles the slow-motion apocalypse that followed. For decades, the fire raged underground, heating the ground until tomatoes cooked on the vine and carbon monoxide filled basements. The government ignored the problem until a 12-year-old boy fell into a steaming sinkhole that opened up in his backyard. Today, Centralia is a ghost town with a population of less than five. The fire is still burning and is expected to burn for another 250 years. This book is a terrifying look at an environmental disaster that cannot be stopped, exploring the incompetence of bureaucracy and the resilience of the few residents who refused to leave their burning homes.