The Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park in California, now the 6th largest in state history, has firefighters using a new method to help fight the flames: a National Guard Predator drone.

The drone will fly over the fire 22 hours a day and provide real time photos to fire commanders about the fire’s progress and possible hot spots.

Mike Wilkins, a commander on scene, told Fox News that the drone has already spotted a new flare-up that firefighters on the ground would not have been able to see until it had grown to a much larger fire.

Officials are optimistic they can surround the fire in three weeks. Over 300 square miles of land has burned and some fire officials say it could be a long time until the flames are extinguished.

“My prediction is that it will burn until we see rain,” Hugh Safford, an ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service told Fox.

The fire is causing massive air quality problems for the region. School children were kept inside because of “hazardous” air conditions and the city of Reno, Nevada only improved to an “unhealthy” level in the last 24 hours.

Eleven homes and over 100 other structures have been destroyed by the fire. In some good news, it appears the fire is burning itself out near the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and that crews are setting back burns to drive the fire away from the water.