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As coal mine smolders, town lingers – Reuters (1/15/08):

Mayor John Lokitis sits peaceably in his living room, portraits of coal miners from his family adorning the walls. A coal-burning stove from the 1940s pushes back the freezing air.

A few hundred meters away, wisps of steam rise from cracks in the earth, evidence of the underground coal fire that has been burning in Centralia, Pennsylvania, since 1962.

Lokitis knows all his constituents. There are only 10 people left in town. Everyone else moved away due to the fire, which may take decades more to burn out.

Despite spending most of my first 25 years in Pennsylvania, I had never heard of the Centralia fire until I visited last year.

What remains of the town – a few houses, smoldering mounds, and 200-year-old cemetery, is one of the strangest things I have ever seen.