SEMINOLE, Ala. — Firefighters continue to battle a blaze raging in Seminole near the Florida line.

Stanley Anderson with the Alabama Forestry Commission said Friday that fire had broken back out in two places along the site.

“A pilot (with the Forestry Commission) flew over the site at around noon today and reported the breakouts in an area encompassing about 15 acres,” Anderson said. “We currently have crews on the ground with bulldozers in Baldwin County working to contain the blaze.”

Forestry Commission officials reported Thursday that the blaze, which had been raging in Seminole since Sunday near the Florida line, had been contained and crews were working to clear up the charred remains of the estimated 1,300 acres that was consumed.

“We will spend all day mopping up and pushing back the debris into the fire lines we have created and finalize the acreage that was destroyed. We still believe the cause to be from lightning and have found no other evidence of anything else. We were very fortunate with this fire that it was in a remote area and didn’t affect any structures,” said Anderson on Thursday.

The only land affected belonged to the Two Rivers Hunting Club but no structures on the property were damaged, as the hunting lodge was located across the street from the fire, Anderson said.

“We were also lucky we didn’t have any more injuries with the firemen or equipment problems. When you have a fire this big, you usually have equipment breakdowns and more safety concerns but we had really good communication and planning and everything went real well,” Anderson said.

On Tuesday afternoon, Governor Bentley declared a drought emergency for the state and issued a burn ban statewide. Anderson said the ban will remain in place until we get at least one to two inches of rainfall accumulation that sticks. The drought emergency was activated because of a 17 inch rain deficit for this time of year.

A plane will be flying over the area to survey the damage and make sure everything is contained within the fire lines. Anderson’s concern now is that further summer lightning storms will spark new fires.

Nine fire departments from Baldwin and Escambia County along with some departments from North Alabama plus 11 freighting personnel from the Alabama Forestry Commission were fighting the blaze that started out small and grew bigger as the days passed.

The Forestry Commission website said Baldwin along with Escambia, Mobile, Washington, Monroe, Conechuh, and Clarke counties have been under a fire alert since May 19 due to increasing dry conditions, high temperatures and low humidity.

For information about fire alerts or wildfires, go to www.forestry.alabama.gov.