Silent Hill, the fictitious and demon town where the events of the video game saga take place, has a confusion in its origin. The story indicates that it is located in Maine, but the inspiration of its creators comes from another town in the United States: Centralia, located in Pennsylvania.

In fiction (2006 film and video game), the place possesses a cursed energy originating from ancient Native American rituals and corrupted by later tragedies.

The town acts as a mirror of the subconscious, attracting people with traumas or dark secrets, materializing their fears into personalized monsters and nightmares. But that's not all, it alternates its visitors between the “real world”, of pure fog and a desperate limbo, and the “other world”: a metallic, rusty and bloody nightmare.

But that is the essence of the video game, which puts you in the shoes of “Harry Mason”, who after an accident searches for his missing adopted daughter and ends up in Silent Hill, facing all kinds of monsters. In addition to trying to find little “Cheryl,” their main struggle is to survive.

Now… where does all that inspiration come from? Precisely from Centralia, that town in Pennsylvania that many describe as a “ghost town,” because its population decreased from 1,000 inhabitants in 1980 to only five in 2020.

What happened in Centralia and why did it inspire Silent Hill?

In 1962 (more than 60 years ago) the city located in northeastern Pennsylvania suffered a coal mine fire. But the most surprising thing is that that fire continues to burn underground. Because?

Although there are several hypotheses, the best known is that in 1962 local authorities tried to clean a garbage dump by setting fire to the accumulated waste. However, despite the action of the firefighters, the fire never completely subsided.

The flames allegedly entered through an unsealed opening, allowing it to spread to the maze of coal mines that were (and remain) abandoned beneath Centralia.

As the years went by, the incident caused damage that forced the population to leave: toxic gases passed through the earth and spread to residents' homes, especially in the basements.

In addition, the extreme heat cracked the asphalt on the main routes. It is said that in 1981 the ground opened under the feet of a 12-year-old boy, named Todd Domboski, in the garden of his home.

The young boy fell into a 1.2 meter sinkhole and managed to hold on to the root of a tree until his cousin, Eric Wolfgang (14 years old), managed to pull him out and put him to safety. Local authorities later discovered that hot air containing a lethal level of carbon monoxide was coming out of the hole.

The toxic smoke, constant fog, cracks in the ground and the almost total abandonment of the town reflect the visual style of the video games and the film Silent Hill. It should be noted that Centralia is not covered in fog, a detail added in the fiction to create a more disturbing atmosphere.

How is Centralia doing now?

Today, Centralia has barely a handful of residents, most of the old buildings have been torn down, and authorities have covered the famous graffiti-covered section of road with dirt to discourage mass tourism.

According to reports and documentaries, experts estimate that the coal available in underground mines still has enough fuel to continue burning for about 250 more years.

Although digging or approaching danger zones is prohibited due to toxic gases, walking through the grid of empty streets is still possible for visitors. In fact, Mexican influencer Luisito Comunica visited Centralia in 2025, describing a heartbreaking and hard-to-believe story.

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