Dutton said officials also deployed a Very Large Air Tanker (VLAT), a smaller air tanker and two helicopters, but they can't extinguish the fire without help from the ground crews.

"It's in some very thick area," Dutton said. "... They're trying to dig hand line where they can, they're working with the helicopter."

Although the fire was officially considered zero percent contained Friday, Dutton said about 10-20% of the fire has been contained on the back side.

Preparing for the hot and dry conditions forecast for Saturday was a top priority of firefighting crews.

"It's going to take a few days at a minimum to stop the fire," Huston said.

Dutton said the cause of the fire has not been determined, but officials suspect it was human-caused.

"It's suspicious in nature of how it started," he said. "The BLM ranger is following up on some leads that we have, who may have started it."

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