I've heard of Centralia before. It's the place that's uninhabitable due to an eternally burning coal mine fire, right? It's pretty sad to see places like this but you can see why it happens if the economy is dependent on mines being as they always run out of resources sooner or later.

Yeah, I was in the area to photograph Centralia actually

Is the ground still smouldering there?

Yeah, though its hard to find the vents sometimes now

That sounds promising. I'm guessing moving back to the area once it's stopped completely won't be safe though.

Its not going away any time soon unfortunately. Though 2/3 of the town is actually completely safe. Even in the early days 2/3 of the residents could have stayed.

I never knew that (I figured the whole town would be based on what Bill Bryson mentioned in, I think, A Walk in the Woods; I know he mentioned that a few people seemed to still be living there).

Yeah its about 5 people now. Was 11 the first time I visited in 2007. Believe there were nearly twice as many buildings still standing in 2007 too

Is the ongoing fire responsible for them collapsing or is it just general wear-and-tear combined with the homes not being maintained?

The agreement in place for the remaining people in town is that they're allowed to stay there until they die or decide to leave, at which time the government tears down their houses. In most cases the people that left were just too old to continue living alone here. Though at least one person was pushed out as late as 2010 when the government condemned his house(at the time the state was still trying to evict all the remaining people).
In a lot of cases it's actually shocking and sad how pristine some of these houses were before being torn down. You can tell the people that lived in them really took great pride in their homes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eEYfV3tNQM
The damage is entirely from vandalism after the house was abandoned

It's a shame that morons felt the need to damage things. :(

Yeah its a real pity

The area makes me homesick, but the housing styles are much different than in Corry, which is in northwest Pa.

V.

Oh yeah?

yup... Corry was industrial, not coal mining...

V.

Where I live used to be industrial. It would be another rust belt city if not for all the banks and corporate offices that moved here in the 1990's

Pennsylvania certainly has a uniqueness to its towns. I miss it, but don’t miss the winters.

True

Huh, you have quite some history around you then! That's some creepy, haunted sort of area. Lovecraft would have found inspiration in it had he lived later to hear about it. Wonder how people (still) living there feel about their home.

No idea. Must be kinda eerie. In terms of US history its quite an old area, inhabited since at least the 1600s, and then by natives before that.