A large wildfire burns in the Gulf State Park on Saturday, June 25, 2011. The fire, which had scorched at least 175 acres, continued to burn late into the night, and threatened the Orange Beach Sports Complex.ORANGE BEACH, Alabama -- Long after sunset tonight, firefighters with seven agencies continued to battle a wildfire that had so far spanned an estimated 175 acres at Gulf State Park.
“People are tired, and we’re swapping crews out now,” Orange Beach Fire Chief Forney Howard said. “But hopefully by morning we’ll have some good news.”
No structures, equipment or people had been harmed so far, he said late Saturday night.
The blaze started around noon today at a campground site at the park, he said.
From there, it burned a fairly steady path for about a mile northeast over the next eight hours, guided by the prevailing winds.
In the early afternoon, Alabama Forestry Commission crews called for aid from nearby fire departments.
The crews cut ditches, sprayed fire-retardant foam and “back burned” -- that is, they set blazes ahead of the main fire, in an effort to burn its fuel out.
A helicopter was called in, and for a short time scooped water from nearby Little Lake and dropped it onto the blaze. But much of the labor went into protecting the few manmade structures that stood in the fire’s path -- a city wastewater treatment plant and an isolated private residence.
By evening, the blaze had split in two. The large, main fire lay less than a half-mile from the southwest corner of the Orange Beach Sports Complex. Another, smaller fire burned about a mile west of the collection of baseball and football fields.
The smaller fire was nearly under control by nightfall, Howard said.
The fire crews’ command center was at the sports complex itself.
“This is the biggest fire break in the city,” Howard said, looking around at the fields with sprinklers turned on.
An orange glow continued to hover over the trees to the southeast, and winds brought gusts of smoke and showers of ash.
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