GRAYLING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Most people think that once a wildfire is “contained” that is is out, extinguished, the fire is gone. But that is not the case.

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According to the RedZone, which boasts the best-in-class expertise on wildfires and their impact on homes and businesses, “containment is normally expressed as a percentage of the entire perimeter (the percentage of the black ‘contained’ perimeter compared to the entire perimeter). A wildfire with 25% containment means control lines have been completed around 25% of the fire’s perimeter. Fire managers will not consider a portion of the fireline “contained” until they are confident that the fire will not grow further in that direction.”

They also say that the National Wildfire Coordinating Group defines control of a fire as “The completion of control line around a fire, any spot fires therefrom, and any interior islands to be saved; burned out any unburned area adjacent to the fire side of the control lines; and cool down all hotspots that are immediate threats to the control line, until the lines can reasonably be expected to hold under the foreseeable conditions.”

Such is the case with the wildfire in Grayling that scorched 2,418 acres over the weekend. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has said that the massive wildfire there has been 100% contained but they are continuing to put out “hot spots” within the burn area.

Michigan News Source reported on the containment recently, and how the DNR Incident Management Team is asking the public to avoid the area while they get their work done safely.

Grayling, and much of Michigan, remains at extreme risk for wildfires as the drought in the state continues. The DNR’s “Great Lakes Fire & Fuels” map shows 49 extreme areas in the state with many others being “very high.”

Although cooking fires and campfires are still allowed, the DNR is not issuing permits for open burning at this time asks for campfires to be kept small and not be unattended. The Grayling wildfire was caused by a campfire that ignited on private property and got out of hand.

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Patrick Ertel, spokesperson for Michigan DNR’s Incident Management Team, says, “If you are going to have a campfire, make sure you have running water nearby, a hose ready to go, a shovel to stir the embers and ensure it is extinguished.”

The DNR has also reported that they have fought more than two dozen fires in Michigan in the past week and that nine out of 10 wildfires are caused by people, the primary cause in Michigan being burning yard debris.

While the fire danger remains very high, things are finally looking up for Michiganders with the weekend having the possibility of rain in many areas of the state starting on Sunday. Many of the predictions show a 50 to 80% chance of rain in different areas of the state that might even last for two to three days.

In Canada, where the fires are reported to still be burning wildly, only a little more than 19% of them have been contained. As of Friday, there were 427 active wildfires in the country, 232 of them being out of control according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC). They list only 83 of them being “held” and 112 “under control.” Being “held” (BH) indicates that with currently committed resources, sufficient suppression action has been taken that the wildfire is not likely to spread beyond existent or predetermined boundaries under prevailing and forecasting conditions.

The fires are all across Canada, with the largest share (145) in Quebec where they have experienced a large amount of lightning storms.

Year to date, Canada has had 2391 fires, 15 times the 10-year average. Canada wildfire season runs from May through October with most fire activity usually starting in July. This much destruction so early in the season is rare.

In a normal season, half of the fires are reportedly caused by lightning and the other half are human-caused. Many reports in the media also blame Canada’s underfunding and mismanagement of their forests. The Washington Examiner and others point to Canada’s government facing “years of sharp criticism for failing to invest more in forest management strategies, such as thinning its forests, removing dead wood and underbrush, or ordering small, prescribed burns when appropriate.”

On Fox News’ The Five, co-host Judge Jeanine Pirro said, “In the United States, in order to protect forests and to take care of those areas that are in danger of burning, we have done 150,000 controlled burns.” She said that Canada has done only 23.