SEMINOLE, Ala. — An Alabama Department of Public Safety State Trooper helicopter was called in to dump about 20 loads (180 gallons per load) of water on the Seminole wildfire that sparked back to life on Friday after jumping the lines and threatening to cross over Styx River.

“The fire was so hot and intense it was too dangerouns for our crews to fight it so we had to use the helicopter to contain it. We worked up until about 2:30 a.m on Saturday morning to keep it from crossing the river. We were determined to not let it cross and threaten the homes on the bluff overlooking the river. We knew if it got the the Altalntic White Cedar, it would spread quickly. Ive never seen a fire burn like that at night,” said Stanley Anderson, Alabama Forestry official.

Contained now, Anderson said it ended up charring 1,600 plus acres and got within 150 feet of a hunting camp that had to be evacuated over the weekend. “The water cooled it down enough for us to go in an take control of it and we also had to dump water on some spot-overs that we couldn’t get to around a peat bog. We had three Florida Forestry units and three Alabama Forestry units working together plus about six local volunteer fire departments working it.”

High winds, low humidity and isolated thunderstorms contributed to the Friday spark and Anderson said they normally don’t call on the troopers to help out but because of the smoke over the interstate (I-10), Hwy. 90, the porximity to subdivisions, danger to the firefighters and a bad fire behavior combination made it necessary to use the helicopter.

“This is the biggest wildfire I have seen in two years and we are so thankful for good support from the Public Safety guys, the DOT (Department of Transportation) and all the volunteer fire departments. They were such a huge help,” Anderson said.

Thanks also go out to the Amertican Red Cross and Seminole VFD for providng water, food and comfort items to the crews, Anderson said “We will continue to monitor it until we have two inches of rain. Right now, we have only had a trace (less than a tenth of an inch).”

The fire, close to the Florida line, began last Sunday as a result of lightning, Anderson said.

On Tuesday, June 7, 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.

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.