A fire that broke out a week ago in Page County is dying down, but in order to get the fire under control, the U.S. Forest Service had to double its size.

Ron Nixon of the U.S. Forest Service says the Valley's falling leaves are part of the problem.

"We still got some canopy, and the leaves are falling, and it's not taking long for them to cure. So, if we have any kind of hot spots in there, it's going to reignite," explains Nixon.

To combat that difficulty the forest service is allowing the fire to expand, using nearby roads the flames can't cross as fire lines. Nixon says this strategy means more safety for the firefighters.

"We would be in there all night long trying to go direct dig it in some unbelievably dangerous terrain," says Nixon.

The dangerous terrain with the thick underbrush led the forest service to bring in air support.

Using a helicopter, officials were literally fighting fire with fire. The forest service dropped 2,000 white balls filled with purple powder, injected the balls with antifreeze and about 25 seconds later, when the balls hit the forrest floor, they ignite.

"It will kill the underbrush but yet not affect the timber," says Nixon.

The helicopter dropped it's load on nearly 300 acres of unburned forest. Though that doubled the size of the fire to nearly 600 acres, the controlled burn takes the fuel away from the wild fire, making the job of putting the fire out faster and safer for firefighters.

"We'll spend a day mopping up, and hopefully, everybody will be out of here, and we can open the roads back up to the public," says Nixon.

The U.S.Forest Service says the recent rain actually made fighting the fire more difficult. It forced the forest service to wait for the underbrush to dry out before there could be the controlled burn.