[HN Gopher] The Rebirth of Pennsylvania's Infamous Burning Town
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       The Rebirth of Pennsylvania's Infamous Burning Town
        
       Author : pbshgthm
       Score  : 30 points
       Date   : 2026-01-20 06:10 UTC (5 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.atlasobscura.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.atlasobscura.com)
        
       | sevenseacat wrote:
       | I find the story of Centralia fascinating. I read through the
       | entirety of Unseen Danger
       | https://archive.org/details/unseendangertrag0000deko, marvelling
       | how it went from something that could have been handled easily if
       | there had been funding, to something that killed the entire town
       | with heavy doses of politics along the way.
        
       | pkul wrote:
       | Mildly related: In North Philadelphia there are a few blocks
       | known as the Logan Triangle that were abandoned once it was
       | discovered that the topsoil was not stable.
       | 
       | https://hiddencityphila.org/2022/06/in-limbo-logan-triangle-...
        
       | ejs wrote:
       | I always thought it was an interesting story, drove out there one
       | day many years ago when I lived nearby. It was a dreary day,
       | which added to the strangeness of the place.
       | 
       | It's an interesting place because it's not that far from other
       | towns, and you can drive right through it on a normal, maintained
       | road. If you turn off and drive just a minute or two it's very
       | different though.
        
       | Vaslo wrote:
       | The author keeps taking jabs at "capitalism" - but let's be
       | honest that this could happen in any political/economic system.
       | This cheapens the article.
        
         | pfdietz wrote:
         | It was done deliberately in the USSR, in a process known as
         | Underground Coal Gasification. Oxygen and steam are injected to
         | convert the coal to syngas (CO + H2) which is brought up to the
         | surface. This allows exploitation of coal deposits that are not
         | suitable for conventional mining.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_coal_gasification
        
         | phyzome wrote:
         | There's only one explicit reference to capitalism.
        
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       (page generated 2026-01-25 16:00 UTC)