The smoke's point of origin is Alaska's Funny River, the fire is still burning

May 22, 2014 17:31 GMT  ·  By

Yesterday, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the United States, best known as NASA, released this image showing swirls of smoke originating from a forest fire as seen from space.

According to Live Science, the smoke's point of origin is Funny River in south-central Alaska. In the picture above, the location of the wildlife is marked by means of a red dot.

Specialists working with National Aeronautics and Space Administration say that the photo above was taken with the help of the Aqua satellite this past May 20, at about 9 p.m. local time. At that time, the fire was still burning.

Due to strong winds and high temperatures in the region, it appears that fire officials are having a difficult time gaining control of the situation. In fact, word has it that the fire is spreading.

“Low RH's [relative humidity] combined with high winds, and competing nearby fires stretching ground and aerial resources thin are making containment difficult,” reads a report issued yesterday.

Although this is yet to be confirmed, specialists have reasons to believe that the cause of this fire, which encompassed an impressive 20,000 acres (81 square kilometers) on May 20, was a campfire that folks failed to properly put out.