(RALEIGH) -- More than 67,000 acres have been scorched by wildfires in Eastern North Carolina.     According to Brian Haines of the North Carolina Forest Service,  when Gov. Perdue declared a state of emergency in 29 eastern counties, she helped pave the way to pay for help which is already coming in from around the country.

"All those folks need to be reimbursed for their time and the equipment that they bring here and it helps open up a funding stream through the state to allow us to do that a little easier perhaps than without it," said Haines.

The largest fires are in Pender, Bladen and Dare Counties.  The fire in Dare County was 100 percent contained as of Tuesday morning.  Fires in Pender and Bladen counties were only about 25 percent contained. North Carolina will now be able to seek federal assistance as the battle to totally contain all of these fires continues.

"I want to assure residents of North Carolina that the state Division of Forest Resources and its partnering agencies are working hard to contain the fires in Eastern North Carolina,” said Gov. Bev Perdue. “They will continue to focus on the top priorities of protecting lives and property nearest the fires."

The Forest Service Incident Management Team is working with more than 300 federal, local and volunteer fire departments to contain the fires.  Much of the containment efforts involve creating fire breaks rather than a massive use of water.