More than a dozen crews have been battling the Hornet Fire in Horry County this weekend. The fire had jumped containment lines Friday night causing crews to perform a third back burn to dry up fuels.

South Carolina Forestry Spokesman Scott Hawkins says as of Sunday night 1,374 acres have burned in the hornet fire. Right now it's contained, but he says that could easily change at any moment. The closest homes are 300 yards away, that's approximately three football fields.

"There is no active fire near any homes, but if it were to escape if the weather were to turn against us, that could change and that's why we're still out here," Hawkins said.

Saturday and Sunday two Army National Guard Blackhawks dropped water from a nearby retention pond on hot spots, while forestry bulldozers cut additional fire lines to barricade the contained fire from spreading. Sunday night rain came in, and Hawkins said crews were pulled so mother nature could do her work, and they expected to return to work for a Monday morning briefing.

Incident Commander Ron Holt was at the Hornet fire when it broke out on July 3rd. He took NewsChannel 15 into the thick of where crews were working. The Carolina Bay drought induced vegetation is proving to be a big hurdle, he said.

"You picture a bulldozer trying to plow through that tall vegetation you can imagine them in an open cab, fire coming at them, smoke covering their visibility almost to zero," Holt said.

That vegetation weighs heavy on crews' minds. New pine needles have fallen onto areas of already dry, organic soil that's ready to burn. Plus with the second day of an excessive heat warning, the temperature was also a concern.

"Our guys are out there in open air, open cab units which are not air conditioned," Hawkins said. He added South Carolina is the only state in the county without some close air conditioned cabs in the Forrestry fleet, even though they fight between 2,000 to 3,000 fires state wide each year.

"In many cases these guys are feeling the heat come at them right off the fire, add to that it's not a six to eight hour work day. It's a long, 14 hour workday for a lot of these guys," Hawkins said.

Additional heat and lung concerns come with the foresters working the firelines.

"We have a lot of safety issues with the environment. One thing is the dust as dry as it is , and the smoke." Holt says.