The Town That Was

In Centralia, Pennsylvania, a fire burns.  In 1962, to clear up the smell before Memorial Day, a controlled burn was started in the garbage dump pit.  A few days later, when they noticed that the pit was still smoking, the townsfolk realized that the fire had ignited the anthracite coal that lines this part of eastern Pennsylvania.  It might have been easy to stop - at the time, a trench around the pit might have cut off the fire for a few thousand dollars.  Instead, it was mostly ignored - for 17 years - steam vents were added, and residents installed methane detectors - until the local gas station owner, wondering why he was losing gas - realized the tanks were being heated to 170 F in the ground.  Coupled with a sinkhole that nearly swallowed a small boy, the state and federal governments finally started taking action.

Unfortunately the most cost effective option at that time was to move the people out, and so the state started buying and demolishing homes and businesses, voluntarily at first, but eventually through eminent domain.

This documentary tells the story as of 2007, when some dozen or so residents remain "squatting" in their own homes, all now owned by the government.  It's a fascinating story of a city in decline, but the documentary is pretty much ruined by focusing on John Lokitis, the youngest remaining resident, who in his 30s lives in the family home and maintains several blocks of the former city.  He rambles on about how special the town is, and how it's such a shame to see it change, which may be true, but then he says that there's no danger and the government should return the land and people should move back, all while we can see the smoke rising from the ground behind him on camera.

The last remaining residents blame the government for lying to them, for in the 1980s promising that no one would be forced out, not once considering that the situation, the fire, and everyone in the government had since changed.  It should be all about the fire, and the town as it was, not about the man who stubbornly refuses to move on from the small town where he grew up, as it slowly burns from the fire started 21 years before he was born.

In Centralia, Pennsylvania, a fire burns.

The Town That Was
2007, 71 minutes, directed by Chris Perkel and Georgie Roland