Firefighters in Chile made inroads Sunday in their battle against a massive wildfire that has consumed 30,000 acres (12,500 hectares) of a national park that is one of the jewels of Patagonia, officials said Sunday.

Vicente Nunez, Chile's top emergency officials said Sunday that the five-day old inferno has failed to spread over the past 10 hours -- a hopeful sign that efforts to contain it appeared to be having success.

Nunez added that if the 600 fire fighters, soldiers and park rangers battling the blaze continue to make progress, the blaze could be brought under control "within the coming hours or days."

High winds have fanned the fire, thwarting an international effort that will soon be comprised of specialist fire-fighting teams from Uruguay and neighboring Argentina, as well as Chilean soldiers, planes and helicopters.

Torres del Paine National Park is a 2,400-square-kilometer (927-square-mile) paradise of granite-peaked mountains, natural Andean forests, Patagonian steppe and turquoise lakes deep in southern Chile.

Investigators arrested and later freed on bond an Israeli tourist they believe inadvertently set off the massive blaze on Tuesday by failing to properly extinguish a roll of toilet paper he had been burning.

The Israeli, 23-year-old Roten Singer, denies starting the fire and his family accuses the Chilean authorities of making him a scapegoat for the disaster. Singer faces up to 60 days in jail and a fine if found guilty.

President Sebastian Pinera has said the park, visited annually by 100,000 tourists, will remain shut throughout January.