Abstract: Infrared thermography is applied to the determination of the temperatures of equipment engulfed in an oil well fire. Operation is similar to a television camera in that the radiant flux from the scanner impinging on the infrared detector generates an electrical signal across the scanner. The amplitude of the signal varies according to the point-by-point temperature variation along the surface of the object that is being scanned by the camera. In this manner, a thermal picture display is generated by the signal produced by the scanning system. This produces a real time thermal image on the display screen. The thermal image is made stable, and hence usable in analyzing oil well fires, by the use of specially selected bandpass infrared filters.