COLUMBIA, N.C. (AP) -- Firefighters battling a massive wildfire in eastern North Carolina hustled Saturday to take advantage of a shift in the winds near the blaze, which has been burning for almost two weeks and sending smoke into neighboring states.

Winds are now blowing lightly to the northeast, giving crews more time to work on containment lines for the fire, which has burned more than 40,000 acres, or upward of 62 square miles, in and around the Pocosin Lakes Wildlife Refuge, said Dean McAlister, a spokesman at the incident command center for the fire.

Meanwhile in Suffolk, nearly 250 firefighters are attempting to contain a wind-fueled fire located primarily in the Virginia portion of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the fire that began Monday has burned 1,575 acres in the refuge and was sending smoke throughout the area on Saturday, including the resort city of Virginia Beach.

Catherine Hibbard said crews are using helicopters to dump buckets of water on the fire and attempting to draw a fire line to stop its spread, fanned by winds gusting to 15 mph. She said they have succeeded in containing 20 percent of the fire.

The fire has wiped out parts of a project to restore Atlantic white cedar trees.

The National Weather Service issued an air quality alert from Hampton Roads through the Richmond area.

Delaware officials say smoke from the North Carolina fire, as well as another wildfire along the North Carolina-Virginia line, has prompting calls from residents in southern Delaware and the Maryland Eastern Shore. No wildfires have been reported in Delaware, said State police spokesman Cpl. Jeff Whitemarsh.

In North Carolina, officials announced the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved a grant to pay 75 percent of the costs to fight the blaze. Fire officials estimate $2.3 million has already been spent.

Firefighters are using existing roads and canals in the areas to act as fire breaks. One of the most important roads is N.C. Highway 94. If the fire jumps past the road, it would threaten a number of homes and structures and become much tougher to control, authorities said.

There also is farmland near the highway, which could cause the fire to rapidly spread. "Unharvested wheat in the fields is a tinderbox waiting to go off," McAlister said.

The weather should continue to help. Forecasters said the light winds should continue through Saturday, then thundershowers are possible Sunday, which could dump an inch of rain in the area. It wouldn't be enough to extinguish the blaze, but could buy crews even more time to build containment lines, McAlister said.

The shift in winds has the smoke from the fire drifting toward the Outer Banks and away from more heavily populated areas.

"The folks who came to the coast this weekend after dealing with all the smoke this week in Raleigh and Durham are having to deal with it on the beach too," McAlister said.

Areas north and east of the fire, including Edenton and Elizabeth City and the northern Outer Banks, remain under a Code Purple air quality warning through Sunday because of the smoke. It is the most severe air pollution warning the state has ever issued. It advises the elderly, children and those with some health problems to avoid all outdoor physical activity.

The fire started June 1 from lightning strikes on private land. The blaze has burned mostly refuge land. No significant injuries have been reported, and no structures have burned. The wildfire is about 40 percent contained.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)