An underground coal fire has raged for 57 years in Centralia, Pennsylvania, turning a bustling mining town into what is almost a ghost town, with fewer than 10 residents.

Residents lived with noxious fumes and dangerous sink holes, and the government eventually bought people's homes and relocated them after failing to put out the fire.

But some residents fought for decades to stay, arguing that this was their home, and that the government wanted the town's coal.

They were ultimately victorious, and they live in the few remaining buildings where the government took away the zip code and tourists provide deep frustration.

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Almost 60 years ago, Centralia, Pennsylvania was a bustling coal mining town, home to more than 1,000 people.

Today, the once-thriving community is a smoldering expanse of overgrown streets, cracked pavement, and charred trees where streams of toxic gas spew into the air from hundreds of fissures in the ground.

A fire in 1962 spread from a landfill to the labyrinth of coal mines beneath the town, essentially creating a giant underground inferno that still rages, virtually invisible from the surface.

The US government ultimately decided to buy up the homes of people living in the town and relocate its residents, but a handful resisted, leading to a decades-long battle to stay in the town and their homes,

They were ultimately able to stay, even though officials say the fire could burn for at least another 100 years. In a 2006 interview, the then-mayor of the town, aged 90, said: "This is the only home I've ever owned, and I want to keep it."

This is what happened in Centralia and what it looks like today.