Three weeks after it began, the Jenkins Creek Fire sits at 16,091 acres, with 188 personnel still working to fight the flames.

“Overall, one thing we’re finding with the hotter, drier weather conditions, we’re finding that we’re still locating heat out on the fire, and it’s been fairly resistant to putting it out,” said Brian Leitinger, Incident Commander for the Jenkins Creek Fire.

Due to its size, Leitinger says the Jenkins Creek Fire could take months to fully extinguish.

“I’d expect that these fires are going to be patrolled, probably for the whole remainder of the summer to make sure they’re out until we get into really wet, rainy weather and what we would call a season ending event. And with the predicted weather, that might be this fall,” said Leitinger.

Even with the fire 94% contained, changing weather conditions could cause it to spread across containment lines.

“Especially given the conditions out there, the dense vegetation and these fuels, there’s a high probability. There’s a lot of fire out there that is in the peat moss and in the Duff. You need the hotter, drier weather and then it starts showing itself over time. And that gives us opportunity then to put those areas out and get better containment on the fire,” said Leitinger.

Despite the work still ahead of them, Leitinger says the crews are in a good place as of Sunday.

“When you look at the upcoming weather, there’s an incident management team in place, there’s adequate resources. We have great support from the local fire departments and aircraft if we need them. And so right now, we’re slowly gaining containment on it, securing hot spots and trying to secure this fire for the rest of the summer,” said Leitinger.

Click here to learn more about the Jenkins Creek Fire.