Rim Fire at Nearly a Quarter Million Acres Entering Third Week

The Rim Fire continues to burn through a huge swath of land in and around Yosemite National Park, standing at nearly a quarter-million acres as the blaze entered its third week of burning Saturday.

While the fire continues to gain ground daily, growing about 10,000 acres between Thursday and Friday, fire-fighting crews were mostly able to keep pace throughout the week; the conflagration remains at 80 percent contained, as it has for the past several days, officials reported Friday night.

At an area of 246,350 acres (385 square miles), the blaze rivals all but the largest of US cities in size, covering more ground than New York City, Indianapolis, or Chicago

Earlier this week the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the blaze has destroyed numerous cattle grazing grounds and that many of the thousands of cattle that graze the land are displaced, injured or dead.

The fire stands as the third-largest in California history local NBC affiliate KCRA reported, adding that after three weeks of taming the the blaze, some members of the fire-fighting crew -- which at it peak swelled to more than 4,000 -- are heading home.

"It was one of the largest fires, and the behavior was a real challenge," Tracy Fire Division Chief Andy Kellogg, who spend two weeks on a crew battling the blaze, told KCRA. "The fire behavior was different than what we were used to seeing."

As of Friday night 3,457 personnel were still involved in fire-fighting operations. Officials say the Rim Fire is expected to be contained on Sept. 20.

Last week a local fire chief speculated that the Rim Fire was caused by an illegal marijuana-growing operation, but the U.S. Forest Service, which is the leading agency with the Rim Fire, has not announced an official cause.