At least 20 acres are burning after forest rangers say someone set a debris fire during a burning ban.

The forest fire is in the Island Creek area of Pike County. Since the fall forest fire season isn't underway yet, crews don't have enough manpower, so rangers from other counties are coming to help.

Crews battled the fire all day Friday. You can actually see the smoke through all of Pikeville. Crews say they have it contained, but the wind and dry conditions are making it harder to put out.

Rangers say a spark quickly turned into a forest fire. Despite a burning ban, foresters say some coal mine workers were burning debris and it soon lit the mountain on fire.

"When we get temperatures like we had, it just turns into a timber box almost," said Pike County Forest Ranger Cody Evans.

The fire spread to almost 30 acres before rangers could get to work.

"Just made a run up the hill and couldn't really do anything with it until it got out of the down timber," Evans said.

Rangers say no homes or buildings are in danger, but the wind is spreading the fire.

There are only a dozen local rangers to fight it. Seasonal forest firefighters don't start until the official forest fire season begins October 1st. Rangers from other divisions are helping fight the flames.

"It's really welcome help. When you're limited within your county, you definitely take all the help you can get. Two or three guys from here or there really adds up fast. It's a tremendous help," Evans said.

Evans believes the fire is under control, but hopes others take it as a lesson to not burn during the bans.

"This definitely goes to show, it can get out of control real fast," Evans said.

Foresters don't think this will be the only fire. Crews are expecting to battle more like this one until the area gets several days worth of a good soaking rain.

The counties with burning bans are Pike, Floyd, Johnson, Martin, Magoffin, and Lawrence Counties.