SoCal Fire Officials Monitor Underground Heat Anomaly

August 2, 2008
San Jose Mercury News

CAMARILLO, Calif.—Authorities have been scrambling to prevent a naturally occurring underground heat source from sparking a wildfire on federal land in Ventura County.

The thermal anomaly a few miles north of Fillmore has been releasing high-temperature gases next to a steep landslide in an area with high grasses and brush, according to county fire officials. Authorities discovered smoke rising from about five different cavities in the area a month ago, said Capt. Ron Oatman in Camarillo.

"It literally looks like a smoldering campfire from a distance and when you get closer and investigate, it's just like smoke coming out of the Earth," he said. "There's no flame."

Over the past few days the county Fire Department began cutting containment lines to prevent a potential fire from spreading. On Friday, officials reinforced those lines with bulldozers.

The rugged 2-acre area, which is not open to the public, has had thermal activity since 1980. County firefighters have responded to the area at least five times over the years but the heat source has never sparked fire, Oatman said.

Fillmore is about 45 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

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