C150 instructor reported a near midair collision while distracted with a fire report.

Attributes
ACN	1577069
Time
Date	201809
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Dusk
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Cessna 150
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Instructor
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30 Flight Crew Total 3000 Flight Crew Type 200
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Miss Distance	Horizontal 300 Vertical 50

Narrative:

I was instructor in right seat; student pilot in left seat. We were investigating an apparent fire in a stand of trees. I called FSS and was in the process of reporting the fire. I instructed my student to circle to the right so I could see the fire. Student was under the hood at the time. I fixated too long on the fire and monitoring aircraft control such that when I finally made a visual scan for traffic; I noticed what appeared to be a C172 close to us; I mean very close (at most 100 meters); opposite direction but from our front left; I'll say from our 11 [o'clock] position. The C172 was slightly higher than we were; but not by much. I could have easily read his north number. As soon as I saw him; I took control of the airplane and nosed down to give us more vertical separation. Student never knew what almost hit us due to the hood. Okay; so that's what happened. How to prevent in the future? Keep my head outside the cockpit!

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C150 instructor reported a NMAC while distracted with a fire report.

Narrative: I was Instructor in right seat; Student Pilot in left seat. We were investigating an apparent fire in a stand of trees. I called FSS and was in the process of reporting the fire. I instructed my student to circle to the right so I could see the fire. Student was under the hood at the time. I fixated too long on the fire and monitoring aircraft control such that when I finally made a visual scan for traffic; I noticed what appeared to be a C172 close to us; I mean VERY close (at most 100 meters); opposite direction but from our front left; I'll say from our 11 [o'clock] position. The C172 was slightly higher than we were; but not by much. I could have easily read his N number. As soon as I saw him; I took control of the airplane and nosed down to give us more vertical separation. Student never knew what almost hit us due to the hood. Okay; so that's what happened. How to prevent in the future? KEEP MY HEAD OUTSIDE THE COCKPIT!

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.