Byrnesville, Pennsylvania was a village between the towns of Centralia and Ashland. In 1856 a handful of Irish Catholic families settled in Byrnesville, and were employed in the local coal mining industry. Many of these families remained in the village for generations. In 1962, the coal veins beneath the neighboring town of Centralia caught fire, likely due to a routine burning of the town’s local dump igniting the coal fire. Initially, the fire didn’t seem to have much impact on Centralia or Byrnesville. But by the 1980s, there were signs…
