The story behind this thing is that in the early 70s, geologists were drilling for gas and found an underground cavern by accident. The ground they were drilling on collapsed, and the cavern was open to the universe. The cavern was also filled with tons of toxic gas, so they ceased drilling for the time being.
The next dilemma was ridding the cavern of all that gas, before it engulfed the village sorta nearby. One of the geologists decided it would be wise to ignite the gas-ridden cavern, to burn up all the natural gas, and come back when the fire was out to finish drilling. This was back in 1971, and as we can clearly see, things do not always go as planned. The crater has been burning ever since.
