1. CENTRALIA, PA This story begins in May of 1962 with an unremarkable rubbish fire in a non-descript little town called Centralia. Located in Columbia County, 120 miles northwest of Philadelphia, Centralia had long been a thriving coal mining community, home to 1,100 people, many of them second and third generation miners.

2. CENTRALIA, PA Perhaps that is why a small pile of burning trash didn't attract much attention, even after it ignited a coal seam on the outskirts of town, triggering an underground mine fire. Certainly, no one imagined that the conflagration would one day merit international media coverage, or that it would reduce the local population to fewer than 25 residents. In fact, virtually all that remains from 1962 is the fire, which has now been burning uninterrupted for nearly 40 years.

17. CENTRALIA, PA The fire will continue to burn for another 250 years before the coal that feeds the fire is finally burned out.