Okay, well not really. In my sector is an ancient landslide area. Out of fissures in the ground emit toxic gasses and high heat. Worried people wanted to make sure it wouldn't cause a fire, so we have investigated several times.
Yesterday we escorted USFS and USGS geologists back up to the site. They wanted to gather more detailed temperature readings and capture some of the smoke to determine just exactly was occurring underground. We had a nice breeze that kept the toxic smoke at bay. For the first time the scientists could actually approach the vents, instead of having to tell us what to do. We protected them and monitored the area while they did their measurements.
Here one of the geologists is capturing the smoke out of a vent. The temperature in that vent 12 inches deep was 977 degrees F! Hence our worry about burning the grass. One of my guys cooked his feet a bit inside his fire boots!
My new firefighters on my crew. The copter came out to take some aerial picture of the steep hill we were on. Despite the oddity and weirdness of the job, they are still happy. I have the best crew! Waaay down the hill in the right corner of the screen behind that hill is our house and the town of Fillmore.
