The U.S. Forest Service said the Great Lake fire in the Croatan National Forest was human-caused.
It remains at 32,000 acres and 30 percent containment, but officials say they have had success in tamping down the flames.
Shawn Nagle is a Southern Area Red Team Section Chief and he said on Wednesday they used a plane fitted with an infrared system to pinpoint problem spots.
“It detects heat signatures or heat sources out there on the fire, so we have airplanes that have IR tools that fire the fire and they let us know where the heat is,” he explained.
Nagle said they used that information to target their efforts on areas that needed it most.
“We got a good IR flight and our resources went out there and pinpointed each one of those heat sources to put it out,” he said, “Put some water on it and put some line around it. So, we're doing a really good job is finding as far as finding all those heat sources.”
He added that people in the area of the fire should still expect to see smoke in the air in the coming days.
There are now 206 people fighting the fire. It’s expected to burn until mid-June.
