WALLOWA COUNTY — The growth of the Elbow Creek Fire has been stymied by a team of more than 1,000 fighting the blaze.

As of Wednesday morning, July 28, the fire that has burned for close to two weeks in Northwestern Wallowa County is at 22,901 acres, but is now 43% contained. Type 1 Oregon Department of Forestry Incident Management Team 3 has been the lead on the fire since Sunday, July 18.

The fire, which grew to 9,000 acres within hours of starting on July 15 and spent several days growing at 1,000-1,500 acres a day, has had its growth largely tamped down in recent days. It has increased in size by just 977 acres since Saturday, and only 220 acres since Sunday.

The number of personnel on the blaze was reported at 1,054 on Tuesday evening.

Burnout operations continued on the east side of Elbow Creek, and crews are into mop-up and patrol work in all divisions.

Crews have implemented the use of handheld infrared heat detection cameras to help find hot spots that may not be readily visible.