Pete's Lake Fire as seen by air on Wednesday. 

Fire officials said Thursday crews have discontinued their direct attack on the 318-acre Petes Lake Fire still burning roughly 30 miles southwest of Bend because the fire’s remote location makes success unlikely and it poses a high risk to firefighter safety.

Instead, efforts will be focused on confining the fire to the west of the Cascade Lakes Highway and within the Three Sisters Wilderness Area, fire officials said.

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Smokejumpers and Hotshot crews made initial progress on the fire, which was sparked by lightning on Aug. 25 and is burning 5 miles west of Elk Lake. The fire prompted U.S. Forest Service officials to announce closures of some trails and sno-parks in the Deschutes and Willamette national forests. Those closures remain in place, as do Level 3—Go Now evacuation notices for areas west of the Cascade Lakes Highway and Level 1—Be Ready evacuation notices for areas east of the highway including Elk and Little Lava lakes.

This fire will be dealt with differently compared to others, officials said.

“We aren’t going to build a ring around this fire,” said Dan Omdal, a public information officer for the incident command team working on the fire.

Omdal said that although the containment on the fire remains at zero percent, that does not mean progress isn’t being made.

“What is unique about this particular start is that it started in a wilderness area…wilderness has very special and unique designation. And one of those is unless life is threatened, we don’t engage with mechanical equipment,” Omdal said. “So, we can’t land a helicopter in a wilderness area unless someone’s life is at risk, especially if the fire is of a natural origin, in the case of lightning.”

On Thursday, crews continued their work preventing the fire from spreading outside of the wilderness area and assessing nearby structures, fire officials said in a news release Thursday. Resources will continue to arrive as needed. There are 173 people, one dozer, four helicopters and six engines dedicated to the fire.

Scattered rain showers are forecast for the next several days, the release said, but the storm system could also produce thunderstorms on Friday and Saturday.