The Real Life Silent Hill

You’ve probably played the popular video game series “Silent Hill’ by Konami or seen the Silent Hill movies, but did you know there’s a real “ghost town” that Silent Hill is based on? In the film Silent Hill is in West Virginia, I always thought that was pretty cool, considering I live here in WV and there’s nothing cool here at all. The real Silent Hill is in located in Centralia, Pennsylvania and underneath the borough is a massive coal seem fire that has been burning since at least May 27th, 1962. The fire is believed to be from deliberate trash burning in a former strip mine, igniting a coal seem. They have attempted to put the fire out multiple times but failed each time and at it’s current rate it could burn for another 250 years or so. The blazing fire resulted in the town being abandoned with the population going from 2,761 people in 1980 to 7 in 2013 (Yes, 7 people really still live there).

The town is covered in complete destruction with gas spewing up from he ground, the road being cracked and trees being bleached white from the fumes.

The ground here in certain locations is actually so hot that you can light a match on it just with contact and there’s numerous sink holes.

This place is dangerous, but at the same time it’s interesting and on my list of spots to visit. Just beware of the signs, they are there for a reason.

I found some pretty good footage of Centralia from a Garrett Rhoades on youtube. He visited there and recorded giving us a good look at the destruction of the town that inspired Silent Hill. Keep in mind, he uploaded this in 2006.