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Mini: Centralia · Why We Do What We Do

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Why We Do What We Do. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to Why We Do What We Do Mini. I am
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  Speaker 1: your host, Abraham. And I'm your host, Shane. We are
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  Speaker 1: a psychology podcast. We talk about the things that humans
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  Speaker 1: and non-human animals do. And then eventually we talk about
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  Speaker 1: the spooky things that humans and non-human animals do in
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  Speaker 1: the month of October, because it's the month of Halloween,
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  Speaker 1: which is my favorite holiday. And it's fun to tell
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  Speaker 1: like scary stories and stuff. And in particular, because I
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  Speaker 1: think even if you're adverse to scary stories, we tend
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  Speaker 1: to I think maybe break some of the scariness and
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  Speaker 1: make them less sensational because we're, we're like trying to
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  Speaker 1: scrutinize them for scientific curiosity's sake.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. And yeah, we like to demystify it a
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  Speaker 2: little bit. And I think there's some fun in it too,
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  Speaker 2: because I think that it's nice to like, not only
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  Speaker 2: kind of understand these spooky stories and these things that
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  Speaker 2: come up, but like, it's also under, it's, I think
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  Speaker 2: it's fun to understand like what the causes.
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  Speaker 1: Are, like how we get here. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Because I think it adds to like a little bit
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  Speaker 2: of the nuance in like the, I don't know, it
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  Speaker 2: just adds to the season, I think, a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. So this is the start of the spooky
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  Speaker 1: season for our mini episodes. And in case you were
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  Speaker 1: joining us for the very first time, minis are short
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  Speaker 1: form episodes that we do where we try and get
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  Speaker 1: into a topic and then out of there in like
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  Speaker 1: 15 minutes or less. These come out on Mondays. Our
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  Speaker 1: full length episodes come out on So we hope that
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  Speaker 1: you enjoy what you hear in this discussion. And if
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  Speaker 1: you do, and you would like to support us, you
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  Speaker 1: can leave us a rating and a review, like, subscribe,
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  Speaker 1: tell a friend, or join us on Patreon. I'll talk
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  Speaker 1: more about those things at the end of this discussion,
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  Speaker 1: but it's a mini, so I think we need to
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  Speaker 1: dive into it. Are you ready?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do it. Okay.
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  Speaker 1: This is the story of the hell on earth town
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  Speaker 1: that inspired in many ways parts of, if not a
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  Speaker 1: lot of the story, Silent Hill or the Silent Hill franchise,
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  Speaker 1: famous for video games and movies alike. And this is
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  Speaker 1: a town called Centralia or Centralia, Pennsylvania. The ghost town
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  Speaker 1: that is on fire. Ooh, spooky.
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  Speaker 2: Fire ghost. Let's talk about this town. Coal mines opening
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  Speaker 2: in Centralia, a small town in eastern Pennsylvania, resulted in
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  Speaker 2: a booming town with over 2,700 residents and all the
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  Speaker 2: amenities of a developing city. There's something really interesting about
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  Speaker 2: boom towns that happen. And these happen all over. I
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  Speaker 2: know that it happens a lot in the United States
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  Speaker 2: where there's like a mining town and it's just.
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  Speaker 1: These big.
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  Speaker 2: Populations that just pop up and then they just go
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  Speaker 2: away real quick once the mining is done.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, there are quite a few. Nevada is home to many,
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  Speaker 1: many little ghost towns that were boom towns. They set
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  Speaker 1: up mines there and retracted a whole bunch of people.
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  Speaker 1: There's not a lot of other natural resources. It never
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  Speaker 1: became a major shipping hub. And when the mine ran
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  Speaker 1: out or collapsed, then people abandoned it. And there's still
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  Speaker 1: a bunch of structures still standing, which is kind of interesting.
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  Speaker 2: Wyoming has a lot of those, too.
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  Speaker 1: Nice. OK, got it. So this is what's happening here
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  Speaker 1: in Centralia, but it was actually doing fairly well. They
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  Speaker 1: were managing to keep things fairly steady. And although the
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  Speaker 1: coal industry was often unpredictable and resulted in economic volatility
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  Speaker 1: in a region, Centralia seemed to be generally thriving. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I will say many people might point this out. They
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  Speaker 1: had a lot of problems with some crime and violence
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  Speaker 1: there where they had like essentially a crime kingpin was
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  Speaker 1: kind of running the show for a while. They had
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  Speaker 1: a lot of fights breaking out periodically. Some people attribute
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  Speaker 1: this to the fact that there was a high Irish population,
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  Speaker 1: but I think that's maybe a little bit too racist
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  Speaker 1: for it to be a real reason. The city had
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  Speaker 1: its problems, but by the time our story picks up,
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  Speaker 1: they had largely sort of cleaned things up and were
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  Speaker 1: doing fairly well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. However, they did have a questionable tradition
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  Speaker 2: of eliminating trash by setting it on fire. This is
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  Speaker 2: not a good way to get rid of trash, by
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  Speaker 2: the way. And they're setting it on fire in a
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  Speaker 2: landfill in an open-pit strip mine where they mined coal.
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  Speaker 1: If you know anything about coal and what we use
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  Speaker 1: it for, that might be a proposition that would have
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  Speaker 1: you thinking... Not a good idea. Not the best. Seems dangerous.
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  Speaker 2: Seems risky.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. This is an open pit strip mine where they
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  Speaker 1: mine coal. But they did this actually quite a few times.
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  Speaker 1: They would periodically, when they needed to, they would go
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  Speaker 1: to this giant landfill and they would set it on fire.
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  Speaker 1: So in May of 1962, when they were engaging in
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  Speaker 1: their trash burning party that they did sometimes, they did
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  Speaker 1: all the same things they would normally do. They had
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  Speaker 1: some firefighters stationed around the pit to ensure the fire
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  Speaker 1: didn't get out of control. And things went according to
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  Speaker 1: plan at first. It appeared not to get out of control. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: after a couple of days, it appeared to have simmered
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  Speaker 1: down normally.
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  Speaker 2: But you can only light a fire next to coal
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  Speaker 2: for so long before the coal, famous for how flammable
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  Speaker 2: it is, eventually catches fire. And the entire city was
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  Speaker 2: situated over an enormous reserve of coal.
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  Speaker 1: Yes. So you've got a giant tank full of fire propellant,
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  Speaker 1: and then you light it on fire. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: That's basically what happened. Like ads light a fire in
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  Speaker 1: the side of podcasts. All right, we're back. We've been
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  Speaker 1: talking about the fire that started in May 1962 in
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  Speaker 1: Centralia where they were burning their trash right next to
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  Speaker 1: their coal and the coal caught fire. Yeah, who would
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  Speaker 1: have thought?
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  Speaker 2: Now, the burning coal produced plumes of smoke that emanated
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  Speaker 2: from the very ground itself like it usually started kind
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  Speaker 2: of the ground was smoking yep sinkhole started opening up
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  Speaker 2: people reported that their basements started getting uncomfortably hot carbon
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  Speaker 2: monoxide started leaking into people's homes there were sometimes open
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  Speaker 2: flames and eventually a 12 year old boy fell into
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  Speaker 2: a 150 foot sinkhole he was rescued but this inspired
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  Speaker 2: a lot of action on the part of the town Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: They're like, okay, hold on. Almost lost a kid. Let's not,
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  Speaker 1: we need to do something about this. Yeah. But yeah,
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  Speaker 1: this is, it's getting pretty bad. They said that the,
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  Speaker 1: the ground temperature itself got up to like 172 degrees
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  Speaker 1: in some places, Fahrenheit for those of you who aren't American. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: so very, very hot. I don't even know what that
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  Speaker 1: is in Celsius. A lot Celsius. Yeah. And they lowered
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  Speaker 1: a thermometer down into the fire and basically maxed out
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  Speaker 1: the thermometer. But they eventually figured out that it was
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  Speaker 1: getting up to over 900 degrees Celsius. where the coal
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  Speaker 1: was burning under the town. So like, I think I
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  Speaker 1: heard stories of even like tire car tires melting in
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  Speaker 1: the streets. Now, of course they attempted to put the
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  Speaker 1: fire out several times using different methods. They poured over
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  Speaker 1: $ 3 million into attempting to remedy the situation. The state
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  Speaker 1: did it at first, but eventually they realized that the
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  Speaker 1: only thing separating the residents of Centralia from the 900
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  Speaker 1: degree fire that was burning below them was the top soil. So,
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  Speaker 1: Their garden basically was that between that and the furnaces
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  Speaker 1: of hell. So essentially it came to the fact that
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  Speaker 1: the town had to be evacuated. It was just way
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  Speaker 1: too dangerous for people to live there anymore. The government's
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  Speaker 1: put together a financial package to try and give people
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  Speaker 1: money so that they could buy new homes because no
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  Speaker 1: one could buy their homes. No one's moving into this
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  Speaker 1: town to take over their houses. So their homes are
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  Speaker 1: basically just lost. So the government gave them some money,
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  Speaker 1: compensated them for their homes. so that they can move
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  Speaker 1: to safer cities. Except a few people who you know
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  Speaker 1: there's going to be those stubborn holdouts. Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: There's going to be the Carl from Ups, but they're
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  Speaker 2: in Centralia and they don't have balloons. Now, by 1990,
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  Speaker 2: there were 63 people remaining in Centralia. By 2013, it
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  Speaker 2: was down to eight. By 2021, only five houses remain standing.
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  Speaker 2: So if you visit Centralia today, you will see the
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  Speaker 2: remains of a town from which the residents have all vanished.
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  Speaker 2: You will see smoke and ripples of heat rising from
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  Speaker 2: the ground in many places.
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  Speaker 1: And before 2020, if you're visiting, you would have also
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  Speaker 1: gotten to see the graffiti highway. It was called, which
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  Speaker 1: was once route 66 that had been covered over by
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  Speaker 1: tons of taggers and graffiti artists who turned it into
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  Speaker 1: a giant, a gigantic asphalt canvas covered with art, which
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  Speaker 1: would have been really cool to see. And there are
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  Speaker 1: some really cool pictures of it, but it has since
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  Speaker 1: been paved over. So nothing left to see anymore.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, as is the case with many graffiti things.
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  Speaker 1: So true. So true. So anyway, yeah, that is Centralia.
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  Speaker 1: It is a town that had to be abandoned because
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  Speaker 1: they basically burned the ground underneath it. And here's the thing.
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  Speaker 1: So we didn't actually say this part, but because there's
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  Speaker 1: so much coal down there, and basically it can only
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  Speaker 1: burn at such a rate. It can't burn all the
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  Speaker 1: coal at once because a lot of the coal is
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  Speaker 1: on top of other coal. So it has to burn
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  Speaker 1: away that coal before the fire can continue to move down.
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  Speaker 1: And there's so much coal there. I saw some number
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  Speaker 1: that they think that this thing could be burning for 100,000
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  Speaker 1: years or something like that.
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  Speaker 2: Sure, of course, of course.
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  Speaker 1: And this was like, this is a region that has,
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  Speaker 1: it had been... Over the various ice ages, like, and
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  Speaker 1: then it warmed up and there was like a giant
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  Speaker 1: bog there. So there's all this peat moss and animal
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  Speaker 1: life and vegetation that eventually turned like that got covered
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  Speaker 1: over and then compressed and turned into fossil fuel in
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  Speaker 1: the form of coal. And there is just a ton
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  Speaker 1: of it. And so, yeah, it could be burning for...
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  Speaker 1: It's been burning ever since May 1962. It's still burning today.
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  Speaker 1: It will still be burning for, as far as we know,
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  Speaker 1: for centuries from now. Wow. Unless they take on pretty
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  Speaker 1: drastic measures, it seems like we're not going to be
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  Speaker 1: able to put this out. And I think at this point,
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  Speaker 1: they're just treating this as... Wow. Yeah. Yeah. sorry, we're out. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. The Lorax would be pissed.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my God. Yeah. Lorax has an aneurysm about this
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  Speaker 1: poor city.
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  Speaker 2: He's so mad. He's twitching. It's the reason why he
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  Speaker 2: started drinking.
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  Speaker 1: Indeed.
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  Speaker 2: Poor Lorax.
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  Speaker 1: I know. Needs help from the onesler. All right. That's
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  Speaker 1: what we have to say about the Lorax and Centralia, Pennsylvania.
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  Speaker 1: Anything you'd like to add or thoughts about this?
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  Speaker 2: No, I mean, I think it's just one of those
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  Speaker 2: things where it's just like human incompetency has created such
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  Speaker 2: a big problem.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm not shocked. Of course it was us causing
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  Speaker 2: a problem.
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  Speaker 1: Now, I have heard that people who visit today, like
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  Speaker 1: because humans have moved out, that even though the ground
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  Speaker 1: is very hot, you'll actually still see a lot of
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  Speaker 1: like wildlife up in the trees. So a lot of
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  Speaker 1: birds and butterflies are quite happy enjoying this unadulterated space. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So apparently there's some beautiful wildlife that you could potentially
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  Speaker 1: see here. Just don't walk on the pavement for fear
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  Speaker 1: of burning your shoes off. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Dangerous on the ground.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, indeed. All right. Well, if I got any of
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  Speaker 1: that wrong or if you have thoughts you'd like to
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  Speaker 1: share about Centralia, you can email us directly at info
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: at WWD WWD podcast dot com. And we do look
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: forward to hearing from you. You can also reach us
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: on the social media platforms. If you'd like to support us,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: you can leave us a rating and a review, like, subscribe,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: tell a friend, or join us on Patreon. And if
• 11:31
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• 11:34
  Speaker 1: ad-free episodes, and I will read your name at the
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: end of our full-length episodes amidst the name of the wonderful, generous,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: awesome people who have taken on supporting us. So thank you, patrons.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: You know who you are. Your names will be read
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: in the full-length episode. Forever. Until we're done with this podcast. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much to my team of people. Thank
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: you for recording with me today, Shane. Is there anything
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  Speaker 1: else that you'd like to add or that I forgot
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  Speaker 1: before we say our goodbyes? Nothing else on my end.
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  Speaker 2: All right.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you all for listening. This is Abraham. And this
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: is Shane. Why We Do What We Do Mini is out.
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  Speaker 2: Bye.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: You've been listening to Why We Do What We Do.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: You can learn more about this and other episodes by
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: going to www.wwdpodcast.com. Thanks for listening, and we hope you
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: have an awesome day.