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Read our Privacy notice A wildfire raging near Area 51 in Nevada remains zero percent contained, officials said. The Quail Springs Fire, first reported on July 24, has burned roughly 13,500 acres on the Nevada Test and Training Range in Lincoln County, the Bureau of Land Management said in a Wednesday update. The Nevada test range spans about 2.9 million acres and includes Area 51, the top-secret military site long associated with speculation about extraterrestrial life. “The fire probably has grown a little bit, but we don’t have any new official acreage to report on that,” Shane Kelly, a spokesperson for the BLM, an agency within the Interior Department, told The Independent . “There’s still no threats to any communities; they may end up getting some smoke, but the fires are still not threatening anything,” Kelly said, adding that it’s “really rough terrain where it’s burning.” open image in gallery A wildfire that is raging near Area 51 in Nevada is currently zero percent contained, according to the Bureau of Land Management ( Nevada Seismological Laboratory ) Asked specifically about Area 51, Kelly declined to comment. “The Quail Springs Fire is within the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR) withdrawn lands,” the BLM said in a statement. “This is a restricted area, closed to the public, always, regardless of fire activity.” The fire is believed to have started from natural causes, possibly lightning, and fire crews are working to manage the blaze. “Crews will continue using an indirect confinement strategy and act as necessary to protect values at risk,” the agency said. “Crews will engage with direct suppression tactics as opportunities arise.” Further updates are expected on Wednesday evening, Kelly said. Persistent drought and record-low snowpack have made this year’s wildfire season worse than usual, with more than 2,000 fires confirmed by the National Fire Center since the start of July, including in California, Colorado and Alaska. Earlier this year, Area 51 was also hit by a different kind of natural event. In late April, at least 17 earthquakes were recorded within 24 hours near the site, prompting unfounded conspiracy theories. open image in gallery Area 51, a top-secret military site, is located within the Nevada Test and Training Range, which spans about 2.9 million acres ( AFP via Getty Images ) U.S. officials have made a number of claims about extraterrestrial life in recent years. “They're real, but I haven't seen them, and they're not being kept in – what is it?” former President Barack Obama said on a podcast in February. “There's no underground facility, unless there's this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.” He later clarified: “I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us.” The same month, President Donald Trump directed the release of government files “ related to alien and extraterrestrial life .” Since then, the Pentagon has released a trove of documents containing reports of strange flying objects. 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