On Friday, Ventura County Fire Department personnel cleared the brush near the intermittent plumes of smoke and cut a fire line around the area to ensure an aboveground fire didn’t start from the high heat. Possible causes of the hotspot include the theory that natural hydrocarbons such as oil or gas are burning deep in the earth, but the reason for the underground burn - whether surface fire or landslide - is not yet confirmed.The area of the Santa Clara River Valley’s mysterious underground fire - which could be as deep as 100 feet - has recorded high heat at least five times since the mid-1980s.A notable underground fire has been burning below the surface of Centralia, Pennsylvania since 1961. The still active fire, which is burning along veins of coal near a defunct mine, forced the majority of Centralia residents to permanently abandon their homes and businesses.
812 degrees: Surface heating up over Fillmore area underground fire
August 06, 2008
Santa Paula News
About two acres of remote government forestland are wafting smoke from cracks in the ground about three miles north of Fillmore, where ground temperature climbed to 812 degrees on Friday.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesAbout two acres of remote government forestland are wafting smoke from cracks in the ground about three miles north of Fillmore, where ground temperature climbed to 812 degrees on Friday. Ventura County and other firefighters are monitoring the patch of land, located in the hills north of Fillmore, where it is believed that underground oil has ignited, possibly due to a landslide.The area is on land owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and leased by an oil company. Scientists had reportedly guessed that a recent fire above ground in the area ignited gas and crude oil beneath the earth’s surface; the area is one of California’s longest-producing oil fields. The hotspot is not far from the Ventura-Los Angeles county line.
