ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – The wildfire burning just north of Orange Beach was calm overnight but state and local officials are gearing up for flare ups as weather conditions change.

“The night-team weather is not conducive to fire spread,” Orange Beach Battalion Chief Jeff Smith said. “Today’s going to be the factor with the weather. It’s supposed to be a little windier today and little a little bit lower relative humidity which is not good for fire control.”

The Alabama Forestry Commission is monitoring the fire as well and gave it a look via air this morning.

“We left two guys over there patrolling it overnight and everything held within the lines and last word I heard from Forestry was they would have a plane up first thing this morning to fly it and check everything,” Smith said . “If all their lines held they would come back today and start adjusting the lines and widening them up and making them bigger.”

New crews are in the area today relieving those who stayed overnight to check the fire’s progress.

“It just kind of a wait and see,” Smith said. “We’re sending a fresh crew down there this morning and forestry’s got a fresh crew coming in so we’ll see what transpires in the day today.”

On Wednesday Smith had a little sense of de ja vu as he watched a 15-acre fire spread to a 500-acre fire on Russian Road north of Orange Beach.

"We saw some guys from the Forestry Commission we haven't seen since July," Smith said Wednesday night."We were saying 'we saw you guys less than a year ago.’"

Alabama Forestry Commission crews and Orange Beach and Gulf Shores crews fought a wildfire less than a year ago in Gulf State Park that eventually consumed almost 1,000 acres. Wednesday they were back just a short distance from that battle to again try to tame a Baldwin County blaze.

The wildfire sparked by lightning in a Tuesday afternoon storm continues to burn across Wolf Bay from Orange Beach.

Smoke was visible for miles in an area that is within the Orange Beach fire protection zone. Russian Road is almost due north of The Wharf in Orange Beach on the north side of the Intracoastal Waterway.

By 5 p.m. Alabama Forestry Commission Baldwin County Forester Ricky Fields said in a release the fire had spread to 400 acres. At about 8:30 the estimate had reached 500 acres, according to Smith.

The fire is not threatening any homes or structures now, Smith said.

“There’s really nothing we can do because the accessibility is so minimal,” Fire Chief Shane Phillips said around 2:45 Wednesday. “It’s very dense back there. We’ve tried to utilize the fire breaks that were cut by the state last night after we left and it’s just spread out of that.”

Smith flew over the fire yesterday to pinpoint its location for ground crews, officials said.

State Forestry Commission crews were back on hand Wednesday.

“This is something they’ll fight with heavy machinery and from our standpoint we’ll just monitor it and if they need us to do anything on the ground behind them with brush trucks then we will,” Phillips said.

The most likely culprit is the lightning. It also sparked a fire in Gulf State Park that was quickly extinguished.

“We feel like it was (lightning),” Phillips said. “During the heat of the storm the one in the state park and the one that they are dealing with now were just about simultaneously called in and the lightning was terrible in that area.”

Crews will continue to work on the fire and try to keep it contained.

“We need some rain, can you help us there?” Phillips said. “Give us some rain and hold the lightning, will ya?