Local officials and residents are fed up with a wildfire the U.S. Forest Service has allowed to burn for nearly two and a half months to clear underbrush.

Beaver County Sheriff Cameron Noel said he's given up trying to cooperate with federal land managers.

"My concern is that if any farmer in Beaver burns a ditch bank and it gets out of control, I have to go and arrest him with reckless endangerment — but what do we do with the Forest Service?" Noel told The Spectrum of St. George. "There are 42,000 acres burned and not a thing we can do about it. That's sick."

The fire has actually burned more than 44,000 acres, or about 68 square miles, and is only 28 percent contained, fire officials said.

Noel said he's been swamped with complaints about the fire, but can't do anything about it.

"I'm not real happy with the BLM and Forest Service and the way they do things with law enforcement," he said.

One resident, Ursula Carstensen, says the smoke is giving her constant headaches.

"Basically, if the fire keeps jumping from one ridge to another, it only needs to jump one more ridge and it will be in our own backyard, which, of course, is a very scary feeling," Carstensen said. "I feel badly it has gotten this far out of control. Had they done things differently, the fire might be able to be controlled a few weeks ago rather than burn over the last 10 weeks."

Fire officials are promising to redouble efforts to out the fire, which is only 28 percent contained.

"It's a naturally caused fire. We're not sure where the rumors are coming from about it being out of control, but we do understand people's concern," fire spokeswoman Annette Grijalva-Disert said. "Right now the fire puts up a big plume of smoke, of course may be the cause for more concern, but we've brought in additional crews who are fully suppressing the fire. It's not out of control by any means."

The fire has caused 29 injuries among 572 firefighters assigned to it. A third of the injuries were minor, the rest related to respiratory problems and illness, officials said. Five helicopters and 10 fire engines have been assigned to it.