The fire in the Croatan National Forest continues to burn but officials say so far it's burning as planned.
In just 24 hours the fire nearly doubled in size to 21,000 acres. Officials say the main reason for the growth are their back burning efforts.
The fire along Catfish Lake Road in Craven County is removing fuel for the fire. Donald Simon, public information officer with the U.S. Forest Service, says even though they have put containment lines around the perimeter of the fire they're still considering it at 20-percent contained. Simon says, "It doesn't mean that it's a wildfire out of control it just means the containment lines we are working with we are not confident that they will hold under all conditions, so until we're sure those lines are as such that they will hold under all conditions we don't want to declare containment."
Simon says at this point there's no timeline on when the fire will be 100-percent contained.
Officials say so far the weather has been cooperating with their back burns, and the better they burn and create blacklines around the fire, the sooner the fire will be contained.
