Fire Alert Expanded In Southwest Alabama

BAY MINETTE, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Forestry Commission says dry weather and high temperatures have prompted an expanded fire alert for southwest Alabama.
Gary Cole, the commission's regional forester for the area, says the alert allows forestry officials to deny some burn permits.
Last month, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management placed Mobile and Baldwin counties, along with 10 northern counties, under a burn ban.
Forestry officials on Thursday continued to battle a blaze that burned about 150 acres in Baldwin County on Wednesday.
Cole says the investigation of the blaze near Interstate 10 continues, but officials believe that logging equipment may have ignited the fire.
He says there are few homes in the area, and none are in immediate danger.