Bournazian said the fire is now at 90 percent containment, and fire crews continue to make good progress.

Given the success of containment efforts, many of the blaze’s firefighting resources are being released and several of them are being reassigned to new fires in and around the state. All aircraft, along with the dozer and several fire engines, were released early Thursday morning.

Weather forecasts for the next several days indicate an increase in temperatures and relative humidity will be in the single digits, which will have a negative effect on fire conditions. These conditions may cause some of the interior hot spots to flare up and put smoke in the air.

“The public can expect to see these few hot spots from within the fire perimeter during this time,” Bournazian said. “They are being mitigated as they are identified by our resources on scene.”

All County and BLM roads remain open. Officials are asking, however, that the public allow a few more days of uninterrupted access around the fire and avoid travel in the area unless necessary; particularly County Road 27, (the Aspen Mountain Road), and the Maggie Springs area just east of U.S. Highway 191 on Miller Mountain.

Bournazian said he expects that remaining firefighting resources working the Bitter Creek fire will be released by this weekend.