As a note, Centralia is a reference to a ghost town in Pennsylvania. Used to be a coal town, but they were burning their trash and accidentally lit up an exposed coal vein. This got below the town into the mines, and has been raging for - get this - the last forty years. Twenty years ago, they gave up on fighting it, and evacuated the town. As of the last check, the town is now inhabited by twelve people, and the fire is looking to spread through underground veins into the next town fairly soon, unless serious measures are enacted. Adds a whole new meaning to that section of the song, if you ask me. I got so curious, I actually looked up the word Centralia. There's a wikipedia article on it that's fairly funny, in a morbid way.
As a note, Centralia is a reference to a ghost town in Pennsylvania. Used to be a coal town, but they were burning their trash and accidentally lit up an exposed coal vein. This got below the town into the mines, and has been raging for - get this - the last forty years. Twenty years ago, they gave up on fighting it, and evacuated the town. As of the last check, the town is now inhabited by twelve people, and the fire is looking to spread through underground veins into the next town fairly soon, unless serious measures are enacted. Adds a whole new meaning to that section of the song, if you ask me. I got so curious, I actually looked up the word Centralia. There's a wikipedia article on it that's fairly funny, in a morbid way.