DAY 8: Centralia - The Real Silent Hill (ShortHand’s 13 Days of Halloween)

Summary

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RedHanded: DAY 8 – Centralia: The Real Silent Hill

(ShortHand’s 13 Days of Halloween)

Release Date: October 25, 2025
Hosts: Ash Kelly & Alina Urquhart

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Overview

In this chilling Halloween edition of RedHanded's “ShortHand,” hosts Ash Kelly and Alina Urquhart dive into the eerie true story of Centralia, Pennsylvania—the real ghost town that inspired the fictional Silent Hill. They trace its transformation from a thriving mining community to a post-apocalyptic wasteland smoldering with toxic gases and fires that have burned for over 60 years. The hosts weave history, dark humor, and horror-cinema references as they unpack how Centralia’s underground inferno began, why attempts to stop it failed, and why some residents refused to leave despite the increasingly hellish conditions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Real Silent Hill: Origin and Atmosphere (03:33–04:21)

• Centralia served as the inspiration for the iconic horror movie and video game Silent Hill.
• Ash confesses her love for “terrible horror movies” and asserts:

  “Silent Hill... It's a great film. And obviously ghost town, abandoned town. Mother gets, you know, pushed into this town to look for her missing daughter. Centralia... was in fact the inspiration for the town in Silent Hill.” —Ash Kelly (03:59)

From Coal Boomtown to Inferno (04:22–08:27)

• Centralia flourished as a coal mining hub from the mid-1800s, with over 2,700 residents and a bustling social life.
• Vast anthracite coal deposits (the “Mammoth Vein”) underpinned its prosperity.
• “It was a tight knit community... shops, schools, theatres and bars. But now it stands silent... because a fire has been raging under the ground... for more than 60 years.” —Ash Kelly (04:21)
• Underground mining practices—including “bootleg” mining after official closures—left a maze of unstable tunnels, creating the perfect conditions for disaster.

The Fire Begins: The Memorial Day Cleanup Catastrophe (16:00–19:02)

• In 1962, the town council ordered a trash fire in an abandoned mine pit as part of pre-Memorial Day cleanup.
• Multiple theories exist, but most agree the fire ignited an open coal seam—starting a blaze that merged with the vast coal network beneath the town.
• Competing explanations: accidental dumping of hot ash, or a fire spreading from a nearby colliery.
• “The people of Centralia had been living for a century on top of an ocean of fuel. And unbeknownst to them, it had just been lit.” —Ash Kelly (18:37)

Descent into Hell: Chaos, Denial, and Collapse (19:02–22:34)

• The fire quickly spread, making extinction efforts futile. Miners’ canaries and pets died from toxic gases.
• Sinkholes and flaming fissures appeared; carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and methane seeped into homes.
• Health effects ranged from unconsciousness to kidney disease. Some blamed “Big Coal” for manufacturing the crisis to buy land cheaply.
• Notable moment:

  “One mother moved to Seattle after a doctor told her that gases in her house were aggravating her son's kidney disease. Worse still, she had lost another son to the same kidney disease a few years previously.” —Ash Kelly (20:00)

The Todd Domboski Incident: The Final Wake-up Call (22:35–24:00)

• In 1981, 12-year-old Todd Domboski fell into a fiery sinkhole in his grandmother's backyard and barely survived.

• This shocking event finally spurred urgent intervention.

  “Todd grabbed onto some nearby tree roots as lethal levels of CO2 and hot plumes of steam billowed out of the ground. He was descending into a flaming open pit. Luckily, his cousin found him ...” —Alina Urquhart (22:50)

Futile Extinguishment & Surrender (24:00–25:19)

• Firefighters and officials tried covering the fire with clay, water, and fly ash, but the inferno persisted due to its vast fuel source and the coal’s low oxygen requirements.
• After 20+ years, efforts were officially abandoned.

The Buyout, Exodus, and Lingering Holdouts (25:19–27:04)

• In 1983, the US Congress allocated $42 million to buy out residents and demolish Centralia.
• Many refused to leave, even as conditions worsened. The famous “Graffiti Highway” and “penis trail” became tourist curiosities.
• “If you've ever watched a horror film about a cursed town... and wondered why the townsfolk don't just move... go down to Centralia and ask them yourselves.” —Alina Urquhart (25:34)

Present Day: Ghost Town and the Sole Surviving Church (28:17–29:54)

• By 2020, only 5 residents remained; nearly all of the 1,100 houses had been demolished.

• The lone structure left is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church, built atop solid rock—a “miraculous” survival that’s now a pilgrimage site.

  “The church really was built on St. Peter, solid rock under there. ... The church was spared and people from surrounding towns still go to receive communion there today.” —Alina Urquhart (28:31)

The Enduring Symbolism—and a Sense of the Macabre (30:36–32:16)

• The church has become an emblem—featured on tote bags and cushions.

• The hosts muse about the pilgrimage element and the potential for “something truly spectacular” still to occur there.

• The fire may burn for hundreds more years.

  “There is enough coal under Centralia to burn for hundreds of years. ... My God, what a waste of coal as well.” —Ash Kelly (31:31)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the surreal look of Centralia:
  “It really does look like, if you Google Centralia... some sort of modern day hellscape...” —Ash Kelly (05:40)

• On the town’s unlucky name:
  “It's a terrible name. I hate it... I would even prefer, like, New Bournemouth.” —Alina Urquhart (09:07)

• On attempts to combat the flames:
  “Coal can burn in an atmosphere that's just 1 or 2% oxygen. ... The likelihood of choking it out... was slim.” —Ash Kelly (24:30)

• On Centralia’s stubborn residents:
  “Even with toxic gases, black smoke, and literal plumes of fire... there were still people in the 80s who did not want to leave.” —Alina Urquhart (25:40)

• On the church’s miraculous survival:
  “...the church really was built on St. Peter, solid rock under there. ... Father Hosko said that it was a biblical discovery.” —Alina Urquhart (28:31)

• On the future:
  “When I look back, I see the hand of God in all these things. I can't help but believe that something truly spectacular is going to happen here.” —Father Michael Husko, paraphrased by Ash Kelly (31:12)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• 03:33 — Silent Hill pop culture intro, segue into Centralia
• 04:22–08:27 — History of Centralia: boomtown to the brink
• 16:00–19:02 — How the fire started and why it was inevitable
• 19:02–22:34 — Inferno erupts: toxic gases, denial, and conspiracy
• 22:35–24:00 — Todd Domboski and the existential danger
• 24:00–25:19 — Extinguishing efforts fail
• 25:19–29:54 — The buyout, dwindling population, odd tourist appeal
• 28:17–32:16 — The church: miracle, faith, and a vestige of community

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Final Thoughts

The story of Centralia is one of environmental catastrophe, human stubbornness, and eerie endurance. Ash and Alina weave historical fact, dark humor, and horror-movie references to capture both the tragedy and the otherworldly fascination of this American ghost town silently smoldering away beneath the Pennsylvania earth.

Advice from the hosts:
If you visit: “Get yourself a tote bag and send us a picture and stay safe.” (32:16)

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For those fascinated by real-life horror, environmental disasters, or the origins of pop-culture myths, this episode offers an engrossing, darkly witty journey into America’s real Silent Hill.

Transcript

[Ash Kelly]

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[Ash Kelly]

Or on Apple Podcasts.

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[Ash Kelly]

What if I told you that the.

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[Red Handed Promo Voice]

Hello there spooky listener.

[Ash Kelly]

It's October, our favorite time of the year.

[Red Handed Promo Voice]

And so to celebrate and give you all a well deserved treat, we're bringing you the 13 days of Halloween Shorthand edition.

[Alina Urquhart]

Usually every single week over on Amazon Music, we release brand new episodes of our bite sized sister show Shorthand. It's like Red Handed's Little Friend, where we delve into all sorts of fascinating topics from hell in different religions, Haitian Voodoo, the death of Edgar Allan Poe, Cotard syndrome, Japan, Suicide forest, and so much more.

[Red Handed Promo Voice]

And this Halloween, from the 19th of.

[Ash Kelly]

October to the 31st of October, we.

[Red Handed Promo Voice]

Are going to be pulling out 13 of our most terrifying episodes of Shorthand to drop straight into your Red Handed feed every single day.

[Alina Urquhart]

But beware, each episode will only be available for 24 hours. So get listening or abandon all hope.

[Red Handed Promo Voice]

Enjoy.

[Ash Kelly]

Hello, hello and welcome to another episode of Shorthand. But I'm pumped. It is of course a long running known piece of knowledge on this show that I love. Any sort of terrible horror film. I refuse to watch any good films. I watch all the terrible ones. I'm gonna say this one is a terrible one purely because I know people are gonna tell me it is. Though I disagree. Silent Hill, have you seen?

[Alina Urquhart]

Yeah, of course I've seen Silent Hill.

[Ash Kelly]

It's a great film. I think it's a great film. And obviously ghost town, abandoned town. Mother gets, you know, pushed into this town to look for her missing daughter. Centralia. The town, the real life ghost town we're going to be talking about today, was in fact the inspiration for the town in Silent Hill. Okay, the town of Silent Hill.

[Alina Urquhart]

Well, sign me up.

[Ash Kelly]

Let's go all in. So on the 27th of May, 1962, the people of Centralia, Pennsylvania were getting ready for their Memorial Day celebrations. The town had been a bustling mining center for more than a hundred years. It was a tight knit community of thousands with shops, schools, theatres and bars. But now it stands silent. Maybe on a hill, but actually not. But it is definitely totally abandoned. Most of the buildings of Centralia have been demolished and everyone is gone. Why? Well, it's because a fire has been raging under the ground of Centralia for more than 60 years.

[Alina Urquhart]

When the ocean of coal under Centralia caught alight, it started a fire that couldn't be tamed. Sinkholes opened up, spewing Smoke and toxic gas. Deep cracks burst through the main road and smoke billowed out of them. People were knocked out in their homes by toxic gas and in the town cemeteries. The flames even reached up from below and swallowed up the dead themselves.

[Ash Kelly]

Ooh.

[Alina Urquhart]

I mean, victim is crime.

[Ash Kelly]

It really does look like, if you Google Centralia and have a little look at the pictures, it really does look like some sort of modern day hellscape situation because there's just like smoke pouring out of cracks in the ground and like parts where you can see flames. Yeah, it's just a weird place. But there's also a picture that somebody's uploaded of what they've called a penis trail, where somebody has just gone and drawn a bunch of penises on the ground and then written penis trail on it. So I hope it was worth all of the potentially toxic fumes it took to make that picture.

[Alina Urquhart]

Did you know that in Pompeii it had the only brothel that we are aware of at all in ancient Rome?

[Ash Kelly]

Well, there you go.

[Alina Urquhart]

As like a structure.

[Ash Kelly]

Sure.

[Alina Urquhart]

Because, I mean, prostitution happened to be everywhere, but it was a specific building that was just brothel. And they think it was actually like a really disastrous economic experiment because they were like, oh, we have to run this brothel. Like it has overheads and costs and stuff. And like the sex workers are everywhere else and they're cheaper. So that's why it's the only one.

[Ash Kelly]

Well, there you go.

[Alina Urquhart]

And I learned that on Betwixt the Sheets, which is Kate Lister's History show.

[Ash Kelly]

Love it.

[Alina Urquhart]

I think she's. She's a doctor of, I don't know, sexy history, whatever. But she's. She's Dan Snow's protege.

[Ash Kelly]

I see.

[Alina Urquhart]

Anyway, I'm trying so hard to link Pompeii and Inferno to lead me on into the next bit, and I can't do it.

[Ash Kelly]

You can do it.

[Alina Urquhart]

I don't know if I can. Well, I'm going to try. Unlike the disaster at Pompeii, which happened thousands of years ago, the inferno raging under Centralia and Pennsylvania is nowhere near over. And this is the shorthand about it.

[Ash Kelly]

Brilliant. Well done. Centralia is nestled among the rolling green hills of eastern Pennsylvania. With dense forests and the rugged Appalachian Mountains nearby, it's a picture perfect small town setting. But it wasn't the natural beauty that first led settlers to set up there. It was what lay under the ground. Vast deposits of anthracite coal. So coal was first discovered in the area in the early 19th century. The huge expanse of black gold they discovered underground became Known as the Mammoth Vein, and it promised practically limitless wealth to whoever could tap it first. In 1842, the land was bought by the Locust Mountain Coal and Iron Company. And soon mining engineer Alexander McRae moved his family there and started drawing up plans for a town.

[Alina Urquhart]

Mining began in the 1850s and 16 years later it was incorporated as a town. Practically all of the town's men spent most of their daylight hours deep in the damp, dark pits underground. Above ground, at least, life was mostly good in Centralia. Neighbours watched out for each other and the coal money was still a flowing. Soon enough, there were seven churches, five hotels, 27 saloons, two theatres, a bank, a post office and 14 grocery stores. And more than 2,700 people called Centralia home. It's a terrible name.

[Ash Kelly]

It is.

[Alina Urquhart]

I hate it.

[Ash Kelly]

I don't know why.

[Alina Urquhart]

I just. I would even prefer, like, New Bournemouth. Do you know what I mean?

[Ash Kelly]

Yeah. It sounds more of a fake name than the fake town it inspired. Silent Hill.

[Alina Urquhart]

Yeah, exactly. Like, if I came across Centralia in some sort of media concept, I'd be like, try on it.

[Ash Kelly]

Yeah, it really does sound like the fake town in some sort of township game.

[Alina Urquhart]

Yes.

[Ash Kelly]

Which may or may not be mildly playing.

[Alina Urquhart]

Are you still doing that?

[Ash Kelly]

No, I gave up on Farmville a long time ago, but I have been playing a lot of, like, Words with Friends word games, Sudoku. And then every now and then it will interrupt my game. And this is how they get you, the marketing. Then it lets you play like two minutes of township and I'm like, that was fun. My business, my business. That was fun. So I started township, but the one that I cannot stand is whiteout. Have you seen it?

[Alina Urquhart]

Because sometimes I don't know what that is.

[Ash Kelly]

It will interrupt your sudoku game with, like, 60 seconds of whiteout. And I was like, oh, okay, a new one. Kind of like township. Let's play. It's you bludgeoning polar bears.

[Alina Urquhart]

Oh, my God.

[Ash Kelly]

And then selling their steaks. I was like, this is not one that I really want to play.

[Red Handed Promo Voice]

So anyway.

[Alina Urquhart]

Oh, no.

[Ash Kelly]

Unless they want to sponsor us, in which case, sponsored by white owls.

[Alina Urquhart]

Polar bears are like 12 foot tall.

[Ash Kelly]

Yeah, they're fucking huge. Kill. Yeah. Kill. Yeah. I was watching four in the Bed yesterday and it's like, come dine with me. But for B and B owners. And they, like, one of the guys takes the group to a, like a zoo and they've got polar bears. And it was just weird because they've got polar bears in, like, a grassy enclosure. I was like, I don't like seeing polar bears on grass. Like, this feels weird. And they were like, we feed our lions, we feed our tigers. We go into those enclosures. The polar bear enclosure is the only one we do not go into. We just throw the food over the fence. And I was like, yeah, that makes sense.

[Alina Urquhart]

I mean, send them back to the North Pole. Let them be free.

[Ash Kelly]

Leave them alone.

[Alina Urquhart]

It's all melting, isn't it? And they're all starving to death up there, so maybe not.

[Ash Kelly]

There's also that. But anyway, Centralia sticking with the town at the core of our shorthand today it was doing well. It even weathered the storm of the Great Depression, which was a huge blow to the coal industry, and saw five of the town's mines close. Sidebar these closures didn't stop bootleg miners from scurrying down and extracting coal from the pillars, however. Since those pillars had been left to keep the tunnel's roofs up, this pilfering led to all sorts of collapses, and this made the tunnel network harder to navigate. And just keep that knowledge in your little brain pocket for later, cooler days.

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[Alina Urquhart]

Whatever they.

[Ash Kelly]

Get into, from chill time to everyday.

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[Ash Kelly]

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[Alina Urquhart]

And just before we get to the infamous day in question, it's important to quickly understand just what made people so darn hungry for coal. So, with your permission, picture this. An area that's full of plants and trees with ground that's totally waterlogged. When the plants die, they usually sink into the soil. And microorganisms get to work breaking down all that dead matter and converting it into energy. And then those organisms go elsewhere to die, etc. It goes on the circle of life and it moves us all. But microorganisms, can I swim? And here in our marshy little copse, microorganisms just can't survive underwater. So all of the dead plants just sit there unbroken down and start to pile up. And eventually there's so many dead plants that it fills up the water and eventually the soil comes in to cover all of it up. And then other vegetation grows on top and the wet plants get buried deep underground. And that pressure builds and builds under the weight of all of this new stuff on top. And all that dead plant energy is compressed into hard carbon rich black rock. And that is what coal is.

[Ash Kelly]

And because it's just densely packed old plants, coal burns super easily. And all that stored up energy means it releases massive amounts of heat, which makes it perfect to heat homes or even run large scale electrical plants. The US has a lot of it. Sixteen states still mine coal today.

[Alina Urquhart]

That's mad.

[Ash Kelly]

They've just got so much. They've just got so much. This is why they're like Russia. Whatever, man. We got our own oil, gas and coal. We're fine.

[Alina Urquhart]

They're fine. We're fucked.

[Ash Kelly]

Yes, Pennsylvania alone provides 5% of the US's coal. And that is because they have a lot of it. But also because the coal Pennsylvania has is good shit. Pennsylvania has a lot of anthracite, which is the hardest form of coal.

[Alina Urquhart]

Interesting.

[Ash Kelly]

Yes, it's shiny, jet black. It is absolutely bursting at the seams with carbon. That means that it burns slower for longer, and it gets much, much hotter. And that, dear friends, is what is under the ground at Centralia. And there's miles and miles and miles of it.

[Alina Urquhart]

So now we know all of that, let's return to the day before Memorial Day in 1962. By this point, the people of Centralia have been excavating for over a hundred years. That day, the townsfolk were all very excited, getting ready for their Memorial Day celebrations. Is Memorial Day war? Yeah, yeah, something like that.

[Ash Kelly]

Maybe it's like our.

[Alina Urquhart]

I don't know, I just think of war memorial.

[Ash Kelly]

Yeah.

[Alina Urquhart]

So maybe it's that. Is it like the people who died in the two wars, blah, blah, blah.

[Ash Kelly]

Yeah, the big wars.

[Alina Urquhart]

That's what I. That's what I have decided. In the weeks leading up to the festivities, the council had promised the people of Centralia that they would clean up the streets. So they sent tons of rubbish to the town's dumps. Many of those dumps were unregulated, just old abandoned mine pits that people were just throwing all sorts of shit into. The council by law was required to put a layer of fire resistant clay between the layers of landfill. But they were running behind and they didn't. Anytime the smell of these massive landfills or the rat problem got too bad, then the council asked the fire service to help them get rid of all of the rubbish. And it seems obvious, but incredibly stupid, the fire service set all of the rubbish on fire.

[Ash Kelly]

And just in case anybody needs telling, burning rubbish in the US is illegal, but it is pretty damn effective.

[Alina Urquhart]

It's a very quick way to deal with quite a large problem.

[Ash Kelly]

Burning things is. Yeah, whether it's evidence, trash, tennis balls, tennis balls, if you are an 11 year old me, it is very, very effective in terms of getting rid of things and also just having, you know, a fun, wholesome Saturday afternoon out with your friends. But on this particular Sunday, in this particular rubbish heap, there was one small but fairly predictable problem. All the rubbish was piled over an open coal seam. And although the mine had been abandoned, it was still connected to the entire mammoth vein that we mentioned earlier. Now it's probably important to say at this point that this is only one theory as to how the fire started. Another theory says that the previous day a trash hauler dumped hot ash or coal from coal burners into the open trash pit. And yet another theory says that this fire under Centralia had actually been burning since 1932. And a fire at the nearby Bast colliery, which is much smaller, had somehow spread to the pits under Centralia. But whatever started it, the people of Centralia had been living for a century on top of an ocean of fuel. And unbeknownst to them, it had just been lit.

[Alina Urquhart]

The fire spread through the mine tunnels snaking under Centralia's streets. Carbon monoxide levels soared through the mines and they were all closed immediately. All of the budgie spontaneously died. At the same instant, attempts began to put out the fire pretty quickly. Firefighters pumped water onto underground flames and even tried to smother the Blaze with clay. But fire kept popping back up. Sinkholes would rip through the roads and billow thick smoke through the town. And because there were so many abandoned tunnels, and more than that, so many collapsed abandoned tunnels, navigating it all was almost impossible. And trying to find out which tunnels stoked the fire and then closing them off was a fool's errand. So the fire was just left to burn.

[Ash Kelly]

Over the next few years, obviously, it got worse. The town's residents, yes, believe it or not, most were still there by this point, started reporting health problems. Some reported losing consciousness while sitting in their homes. I'd say that's more than a health problem. I'd say you're in some pretty serious trouble there. They were losing consciousness because, like we said, carbon monoxide levels and also sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and methane were seeping through the floorboards of their home. One mother moved to Seattle after a doctor told her that gases in her house were aggravating her son's kidney disease. Worse still, she had lost another son to the same kidney disease a few years previously. So why on earth did anybody stay? Well, it wasn't just that these folks bloody loved their town. Some homeowners were told that the fire was going the other way and would be gone soon. And others were convinced that it was all a plot by Big Coal to get them to sell off all their valuable land. Which I can believe.

[Alina Urquhart]

Oh, easily. It's like that bit in Chernobyl where there's that little old lady and they're like, you have to leave. And she was like, no. Yeah. Like, I've been here the whole time and now you're telling me to leave or something.

[Ash Kelly]

I can't even fucking see. Absolutely. And, you know, it's also like, even if they didn't believe in that sort of conspiracy or anything, it's like, I'm sure a lot of them weren't just like, oh, yeah, let me sell this house now that's on condemned land in a town that is going to become a ghost town.

[Alina Urquhart]

Yeah.

[Ash Kelly]

And then just go, you know, start my new life somewhere else in the us Like, I'm guessing for a lot of people in that town who. The majority of them are coal miners, they're like, oh, we're ruined.

[Alina Urquhart]

We're financially ruined and if we leave, they're going to take it all.

[Ash Kelly]

Yeah.

[Alina Urquhart]

But whatever people were told, whatever they thought, whatever they discussed amongst themselves, the proof of what was really going on only got more obvious. Rats were everywhere, driven from their burrows by the heat in some Spots. The ground itself reached more than 450 degrees Celsius. Fuck me, that's 900 Fahrenheit. Homes started to lean and sinkholes kept bursting through the centre of town. Cracks opened straight down into cavernous flaming mining tunnels and smoke filled the streets. After the fire approached a 6 inch natural gas pipeline under the road. Buses were placed on permanent call in case there was a need for an evacuation.

[Ash Kelly]

I'd argue do it now.

[Alina Urquhart]

Why are they still there? We're just going to wait for the gas line to blow up and then everyone can leave. In 1981, an article in People magazine read the Even the dead cannot rest in peace. Graves in the town's two cemeteries are believed to have dropped into the abyss of fire that rages below them. And then one day, February the same year, 12 year old Todd Domboski was playing in his grandma's garden when the ground gave way beneath him. Todd grabbed onto some nearby tree roots as lethal levels of CO2 and hot plumes of steam billowed out of the ground. He was descending into a flaming open pit. Luckily, his cousin found him and pulled him to safety. And he did narrowly escape with his life. But I don't think you would ever get over that.

[Ash Kelly]

No.

[Alina Urquhart]

I wonder if he'd done something real bad, like not actually bad, but like what a child would think was bad.

[Ash Kelly]

Sure, sure, sure.

[Alina Urquhart]

And he's like, oh no, this is my penance.

[Ash Kelly]

Yeah, absolutely. It's like some left behind shirt.

[Alina Urquhart]

Yeah. Anyway. After Todd fell through the earth, efforts to tackle the fire once and for all ramped up a bit.

[Ash Kelly]

Clay was put over the surface to prevent oxygen reaching the fire and firefighters pumped in water, rocks and even a slurry of what's known as fly ash, which is ash from coal burning fire plants. But it was still burning. By this point, the fire had already been burning for 20 years. So yes, as we've sort of casually walked you through these situations, told you a couple of stories, please remember the timeline. This has now been going on for two decades. And just to, you know, put into perspective what they're trying to do, obviously when they're trying to dump a bunch of ash and water and rocks and clay, they're trying to suffocate the fire because our air is typically 21% oxygen, but coal can burn in an atmosphere that's just 1 or 2% oxygen. So despite their best attempts, the likelihood of choking it out because it's a coal fire was slim. Plus, remember, it's not called the Mammoth Vein for nothing. There Were miles and miles and miles of tunnels. Now, the council had already spent millions of dollars on endless attempts to contain this fire, and in 1983, they gave up trying to contain it for good and simply surrendered the town to the fire.

[Alina Urquhart]

Uncharacteristically, US Congress decided to buy the residents out, and they allocated $42 million to buy every building in Centralia and knock it down. Not everyone took them up on it. And if you've ever watched a horror film about a cursed town like Silent Hill, where kids keep dying and wondered why the townsfolk don't just move to another village, maybe go down to Centralia and ask them yourselves. Because somehow, even with toxic gases, black smoke, and literal plumes of fire bursting through the ground at any moment, there were still people in the 80s who did not want to leave. Eventually, in the 90s, the section of Route 61 that went through the town was permanently closed, and traffic was diverted hundreds of yards to the east. That closed highway full of huge smoking cracks became a weird tourist attraction. Of course it did. And if you do a little Google, it's the first thing you'll see. The cracked road surface is now covered in colorful graffiti. And apparently there was once a hot dog stand to service the weird tourists.

[Ash Kelly]

And a section of it was definitely the penis trail. Now, somehow, by 1992, there were still people living in Centralia. So Pennsylvania moved to condemn all of the town's remaining buildings. In 2002, just 20 people remained, and the zip code was eliminated. They're really trying their best to make these people not exist anymore, but they weren't going to go down without a fight. The holdouts obtained a court order to keep their houses, but they were forbidden from passing down the property or selling it.

[Alina Urquhart]

Do you need to forbid that? Who's gonna want it?

[Ash Kelly]

I mean, nobody, because, and this sounds awful of me, but their kids are all gonna die. So, like, no one's gonna be left deposit on Jesus anyway. Now, eventually, the last operating store, a motorcycle shop called Speed Spot, closed for good. In 2016, 10 people still lived in Centralia, and by 2020, there were just five. And that is the last figure that we have. 1,100 houses have been demolished, and today Centralia is a ghost town. And in 2021, in full blown pandemic times, the owner of the infamous graffiti highway got sick of people congregating on it. So it was covered in dirt, and now it's covered in plants and trees. Through the town, you can see the occasional boarded up house or business and lots of abandoned cars. But there is one building that still contains some life. And this is what makes it seem extra silent. Tilly. Because of Centralia's seven churches, just one is still standing.

[Alina Urquhart]

On a hillside overlooking the city sits the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It's a bright white Ukrainian Catholic church that was built in 1911, and it's come pretty close to being demolished as well. According to its priest, Father Michael Husko, the church was on its last breath, but just in the nick of time. The Archbishop ordered a survey of the ground below the church. And when they drilled, the church really was built on St. Peter, solid rock under there. And so Father Hosko said that it was a biblical discovery. The church was spared and people from surrounding towns still go to receive communion there today.

[Ash Kelly]

It is. I would really suggest that people give this a little. Google it is. Look at that.

[Alina Urquhart]

Fuck me. Absolutely not.

[Ash Kelly]

It's just like Anna said, this giant white church just standing in the middle of what has obviously become just a forest. Because, like I said, they covered a lot of the roads up with dirt. They've tried to pour dirt over the fire to stop it, and plants have grown over it, but then still the road leading to the town is still just smoking and flaming and there's just this church. You can also get a picture of this church on a tote bag or a cushion or a notebook. So there you go. If you want a bag. If you want a picture of the church on a bag, they do much. So that's fun. You would, though, wouldn't you?

[Alina Urquhart]

Well, but who's. Who are the proceeds going to the Catholic Church?

[Ash Kelly]

Yes, Father Michael Hosko.

[Alina Urquhart]

Actually the very head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church himself, Archbishop Szeszlav Chevchuk, visited the Centralia Church, his very own self, when he did a tour of the us. You would have to. Yeah, you can't leave it out. And he was so impressed by the story of the rock and the savior, of the building that he's actually made the church a pilgrimage site. And hundreds pilgrim there every year.

[Ash Kelly]

It's a great story.

[Alina Urquhart]

If it wasn't for like, firstly, like, no wonder the last shop was a bike shop, because no one. You can't drive a car to there, so you're going to have to get on some sort of bike to even get through. I know usually when we discuss these things, we're like, oh, look, let's go. I don't want to.

[Ash Kelly]

No, I'm fine, I'm fine. No, I can barely breathe. And it's just because of the hay fever. I really don't need to go stand a bunch of toxic fumes. So, yes, the church. If you have watched Silent Hill, you will remember that the church in the movie and the video game, because I know it's a video game. First, the church is a sanctuary, the one place that evil can't enter. And while Father Husko doesn't seem like the biggest gamer around, he does believe that the church was saved for a reason. He says, I think its history is unfolding before our eyes. The final chapter hasn't been written yet. When I look back, I see the hand of God in all these things. I can't help but believe that something truly spectacular is going to happen here. Truly spectacular. But it might be some time before we find out what that is, because some estimates believe that there is enough coal under Centralia to burn for hundreds of years. My God, what a waste of coal as well.

[Alina Urquhart]

Why can't you know that big fiery hole in the ground in Turkmenistan? Tajikistan? You know the one I mean?

[Ash Kelly]

In one of the stalls that's just, like, open.

[Alina Urquhart]

Why can't they open it?

[Ash Kelly]

I don't know.

[Alina Urquhart]

Will that make it worse?

[Ash Kelly]

Maybe, I guess. More oxygen. Who knows? We'll leave them to it.

[Alina Urquhart]

I don't think that one's coal either. I think it's gas.

[Ash Kelly]

Yeah, I think it's gas because there's something about it that, like, the color of the flames is, like, blue. I know that's sulfur, but I think it's also. I think it's gas. And you see the video footage of the people putting on, like, silver spacesuits and, like, being descended into it. Again, not something I really desperately want to do, but if you really desperately want to go check out the ghost town of Centralia, I don't know if it's advisable for us to be sending people there. But you can go there because people go pilgrimage at that big church.

[Alina Urquhart]

That's true.

[Ash Kelly]

So if you go, get yourself a tote bag and send us a picture and stay safe. And we'll be back next week with another shorthand goodbye. Bye.

[Mr. Ballin]

You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries should be your new Go to Weekly show. Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

[Ash Kelly]

It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast Morbid.

[Alina Urquhart]

We're your hosts.

[Ash Kelly]

I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly and our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy.

[Alina Urquhart]

The stories we cover are well researched.

[Ash Kelly]

Of the 880 men who survived the attack, around 400 would eventually find their way to one another and merge into one larger group with a touch of humor. Shout out to her. Shout out to all my therapists. Throughout the years there's been like eight of them. A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. That motherf er is not real. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal, or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine.

[Alina Urquhart]

And dissect the details of some of.

[Ash Kelly]

History'S most notorious crimes, you should tune in to our podcast Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad free by joining Wondery plus and the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.