A wildfire that burned through roughly 400 acres of wooded, swampy land in south Baldwin County has been contained, fire officials confirmed, with crews continuing to monitor the site for any flare-ups.
The blaze, which broke out near Magnolia Springs and sent smoke drifting across a large stretch of the Eastern Shore through Fairhope and Daphne, initially appeared larger than it turned out to be. An early estimate from the Alabama Forestry Commission’s southwest regional forester put the burned area at 700 acres, but that figure was later corrected to around 400 acres once officials accounted for roughly 300 acres consumed by the controlled burn that originally sparked the fire.
Forestry crews, working alongside about a dozen Baldwin County volunteer fire departments, protected around 10 homes along Bay Road South south of Magnolia Springs by intentionally burning roughly 100 acres surrounding the residences to create a buffer. Officials said the tactic worked as intended, with the fire’s threat to homes on the western side largely eliminated by the time crews declared it contained.
The fire’s origins trace back to a permitted controlled burn on private property that got away from the landowner more than a week before it was fully contained. Magnolia Springs Volunteer Fire Department crews first responded to the blaze the Friday after Thanksgiving, but found it had already spread into inaccessible marshland along Bon Secour Bay, limiting what firefighters could do at the time. Moisture in the area appeared to slow the fire’s progress for several days before it picked back up.
Conditions changed over the following weekend when the fire reached higher, drier ground and a steady breeze fanned the flames, prompting a larger response. Alabama Forestry Commission crews brought in four bulldozers to cut firebreaks around threatened homes, while an Alabama Department of Public Safety helicopter dropped water from a bucket onto key hot spots to slow the fire’s spread.
Heavy smoke from the fire forced authorities to temporarily close Bay Road South, disrupting travel in the area during the height of the blaze. By the following Monday night, officials reported only a small two-acre flare-up during the day, which crews brought under control quickly. A reduced crew remained on site afterward to watch for any hot spots that might reignite as conditions dried out.
No homes were damaged and no injuries were reported in connection with the fire, a result officials credited to the coordinated response between state forestry crews and local volunteer fire departments working together to protect the threatened properties.