SoCal "Hot Spot" Puzzles Experts
KTLA News

August 6, 2008, 5:26 AM PDT

SoCal "Hot Spot" Puzzles Experts FILLMORE -- Things are really heating up in Ventura County and experts aren't sure why.

A patch of land near Fillmore shot up to more than 800 degrees on Friday. Geologists and firefighters are puzzled by the unusual "hot spot".

"It's a thermal anomaly," said Ron Oatman, spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department.

The firefighters and geologists who surveyed the two-acre plot north of Fillmore are uncertain what's causing the heat, but they have some theories.

The area is considered an active landslide that in the last 60 years has moved and trapped hydrocarbons, found in petroleum products, natural gas and coal, some several hundred feet deep, Oatman said. After it dried out, the earth began to crack and oxygen crept in, causing "some sort of combustion," he said.

Firefighters noticed the hot spot Friday after smoke rose through five cracks in the ground. From a distance, it looked like "a small, smoldering camp fire," Oatman said.

The steep, rugged terrain owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and leased by an oil company is normally gated off from public access and does not have any equipment or buildings on it, he said.

This same land area has recorded high heat about five or six times since 1987 and has always been dubbed a "natural phenomenon," Oatman said.

Oatman said the ground is cooling and is not a threat to public safety. The fire department has established a control line around the area in case a brush fire starts and is monitoring the area daily, he said.