Wittenoom, Australia
Australia isn’t better when it comes to mining cities, as they have their own mining disaster going on. Wittenoom was quite a big mining town in the early 1960s, as it amassed about 20,000 citizens, even boasting a cinema, two schools, and even a hotel. Most of the residents worked at the nearby blue asbestos mine, which brought about the doom of the city years later.
The mine was closed in 1966, but it was already too late for some of the locals. Over the years, over 2,000 town residents have died from diseases related to asbestos, while the mineworkers were at direct risk of lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma. The mineral and the chemicals from the mine have poisoned the ground in the area, yet the government had not announced the closure of the city until the late 1970s when they started buying and demolishing buildings.
Now being dubbed “Australia’s Chernobyl”, Wittenoom was erased from the official maps and even disconnected from the power grid, a plaque being installed on the road that leads to the city warning of how infested the area is with asbestos. Despite this, there are still three stubborn residents that still refuse to leave the area. Why would they want to keep on living in a mostly demolished, abandoned, and toxic town cannot be explained.
Centralia, USA
Possibly holding one of the darkest secrets of an American town, Centralia was the picture-perfect mining town Pennsylvania could ask for. Different from the other mining towns on our list, Centralia was a coal mining town, so there was no risk of poisoning due to hard metals. However, due to unknown circumstances, the town’s landfill caught on fire in 1962 and soon reached through the old strip mine it was based on to the deep coal mines beneath the town. There was nothing to be done after the blaze reached the coal reserves, as they just kept on burning.
What is even more horrific is that for years, residents of the town have not been told about what really happened. In 1979, 17 years after the arson, a resident fell into a sinkhole and landed in the hell that was burning underneath the city. That’s when the extent of the fire hit the headlines, but it was too late. The smoke and poisonous gasses were escaping from underground from fissures that were cracking open the roads, making residents fall ill and endangering their lives.
The government allocated millions of dollars for the relocation of the residents, yet there are still about a dozen people who still stubbornly reside in Centralia. The town is closed to newcomers, as the fire that burns underneath the city in the coal reserve is impossible to put out due to being constantly fed. Experts believe that it will burn for at least the next 100 years, dooming this almost abandoned town to never reach its full potential, beyond being known as an inspiration for the popular horror game and movie franchise Silent Hill.
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