LAKE PLACID – Forest rangers and a crew from the Moriah Shock prison continued to contain a wildfire in the area near Nye Mountain, an Adirondack 46er, on Friday. The plan is for forest rangers and the Moriah Shock crew to continue that work today, this time with a state police helicopter.

The fire, which has been dubbed “The Bear Cub Fire,” is a 2-acre ground fire on Peacock Mountain, a smaller mountain near the 3,888-foot Nye Mountain near North Elba, state Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman David Winchell said late Friday afternoon. Peacock Mountain has an elevation of 2,533 feet, is 2.53 miles from the summit of Nye Mountain, 1.85 miles from Wanika Falls Run and 2.97 miles from Mount Jo.

He said the fire was 85 percent contained Friday afternoon when forest rangers and Moriah Shock crew left the area of the fire.

Winchell added that four DEC forest rangers, the crew from Moriah Shock and a state police helicopter would return to the scene of the fire today.

The cause of the fire appears to be an illegal camp fire that was not put out properly that spread into the ground on Peacock Mountain, he said.

Lake Placid Volunteer Fire Department head driver Matt Colby said no local firefighters were working the fire Friday. Firefighters from Lake Placid, Wilmington and Saranac Lake teamed up with two forest rangers to contain the fire for eight hours on Thursday, initially estimating that more than 90 percent of the fire was contained as of Thursday night.

About a dozen firefighters and two forest rangers entered the forest near Bear Cub Road to fight the fire Thursday around noon with 5-gallon “Indian Backpack” firefighting pumps and hand tools.

“It’s still burning,” Colby said early Friday afternoon, “probably will be before a few days before they contain it.”

Smoke from the fire was easily visible throughout the area of the Eastern High Peaks, clearly seen from the summit of Mount Van Hoevenberg late Thursday evening.

There was a black helicopter in the area of Lake Placid Friday, but Colby said that was not to fight the fire, rather it was military members from Fort Drum practicing maneuvers, which is common this time of year.

On Thursday, Steve Brewster of Lake Placid watched the fire from about a quarter of a mile down on Bear Cub Road from where the firefighters had accessed the fire. He said he owns the closest hunting camp to the location of the fire, which he said wasn’t far from the Northville-Placid Trail.

To put it out, he said firefighters and forest rangers would likely have to traverse the final mile-and-a-half over steep terrain without a trail. Brewster said aside from a couple of airplanes that have crashed into Nye Mountain, he couldn’t remember a wildfire in the vicinity in his extended time camping and hunting in the area, though he and friends recently spoke about how they were surprised a wildfire hadn’t occurred in the area recently considering the dry summer season. He estimated the fire was located at 1,800 to 2,000 feet of elevation.

“It’s straight up and down,” he said. “They are going to be grabbing trees to get up there.”