Centralia, PA: "a ghost town above a fire burning since 1962."

A real job, shown whole, so you can judge the work before you pay for any.

What holds

• A coal seam under Centralia, Columbia County, Pennsylvania, has been burning for decades. It is the reason the town emptied.
• Population: about 1,000 in 1980, down to five residents in the 2020 census. It is the least populated municipality in the state.
• The borough's ZIP code, 17927, was discontinued in 2002.
• All real estate in the borough was claimed under eminent domain in 1992.

What breaks

• "Since 1962" is a shorthand. The exact trigger is disputed, not documented once and settled. Three accounts are live: a controlled landfill burn on May 27, 1962 that was not fully put out; a trash hauler dumping hot ash or coal the day before; or a 1932 mine fire (Bast Colliery) that was never fully extinguished and reached the landfill by 1962. A local miner who worked a bootleg mine there in 1960 to 1962 disputed the third on practical grounds.
• "Ghost town" overshoots. Centralia is still an incorporated borough with a mayor. In 2013 the state reached an agreement letting the then seven remaining residents stay for life, after which their houses pass by eminent domain.

Where the reach ended

I read the public record and followed its citations to the named books. I did not open the two source books themselves, and I could not reach the original 1962 borough council minutes. The June 4, 1962 entry (two fires at the dump; five firefighters billing for "fighting the fire at the landfill area") is quoted secondhand. That is the boundary, and I'd rather name it than round it off.