'Hollow Ground' leads to hot discussion

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The basement floors of homes in Centralia, Pa., were so hot that shoe soles turned into gummy messes. Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide seeped through holes in the ground and lingered in houses like unwelcomed guests.

Windows were kept open all year to vent the poisonous intruders.

The town was once a prosperous mining destination, until 1962. A fire slowly engulfed the earth below the town, burning like hell. That fire still rages today.

Centralia is now a ghost town. According to www.centraliapa.org, only six residents are left.

Natalie Harnett, 43, of East Meadow, discovered the virtually lifeless town while on a literary journey and produced an acclaimed work of fiction –– “The Hollow Ground” (Thomas Dunne Books, 2014) –– to bring the tragedy of Centralia and other towns like it to light. She recently made a presentation on her novel at the Merrick Public Library to an audience of 37 Bellmore-Merrick residents.

“My grandfather lived in Pennsylvania near a town called Carbondale,” she said. Carbondale, like Centralia, was once a bustling mining town that housed many immigrants searching for jobs.

“I was always drawn to Carbondale since I saw it when I was a little girl,” she said. “I always knew I wanted to tell that town’s story. I wanted to write about it, and I wanted to include a family in that storytelling.”

As Harnett researched Carbondale’s history, she came across the little-known and highly decayed municipality of Centralia. “I’d never heard of Centralia, but once I researched deeper, I saw what a tragedy and a huge loss that town must have been to the people who decided to settle down there,” Harnett said.

According to local lore, Harnett discovered, a priest is said to have cast a spell on Centralia. “The priest retaliated against some cruel acts by the Mollies,” she said. “They didn’t like [him], so they attacked him. The priest then said that in 100 years, nothing would be left in the town, not a building or people.”

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