The Whipping Creek Fire is officially out.

Officials at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and the North Carolina Forest Service made the declaration on June 3, closing the book on the months-long fire that burned 15,453 acres across Hyde and Dare counties.

Bonnie Strawser, public information officer at Alligator River, said heavy rains over the past few weeks sealed fire’s fate — including more than 10 inches of rainfall over the course of a few weeks and another 2.4 inches from Tropical Depression Bonnie within 24 hours.

Strawser said officials hadn’t seen smoke for weeks, but are always cautious about declaring a fire “out.” Such heavy rainfall gave them the confidence to do so last week.

“It could’ve been out long before that,” she said. “Until we’ve had enough rain to literally drown it all, we’re not going to declare it out.”

Officials categorize a fire in three ways: contained, meaning firefighters have the blaze contained within a perimeter, and although there is little chance of it spreading, they continue to monitor it; controlled, meaning there are some hot spots left but crews no longer monitor the blaze; out, meaning there are no more hot spots.

Strawser said a hot spot includes any fire, smoldering embers, or in the case of ground fire, smoldering below the soil surface.

The Whipping Creek Fire was sparked on April 18 by maintenance operations, likely mowing or bush-hogging, along U.S. Highway 264 in Hyde County and continued to spread until crews contained it in early May. Areas affected included private lands, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission game lands, Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Department of Defense property and the Nature Conservancy.

The damage from the fire was relatively minimal, and some damage from crews’ suppression efforts is covered by fire funds set aside for that purpose, according to Strawser.

The fire spread across largely uninhabited lands, and no communities were directly affected. U.S. 264 was shut down briefly due to dense smoke.