At Seminole Woods in Flagler County, a new fire at Slocum Path and Slippery Rock Place raised old fears. Wildfire destroyed homes in the community in 1985 and again in 1998, and its residents have been on guard since the White Eagle fire threatened homes there last week.

Cameron Johnson, 14, was in his room when his mom asked him to move a "for sale" sign in front of their house on Sloganeer Trail. He stepped outside and started to move the sign.

"I just turned around, and I saw this big column of smoke," Cameron said. "I went back inside and yelled, 'Mom, fire or another fire!' "

Cameron jumped on his bicycle and rode up and down Sloganeer Trail ringing doorbells and warning neighbors. Things looked grim.

It "looked like the wind was on fire," he said.

Four houses were evacuated. Residents in other parts of Volusia and Flagler were warned to be ready to leave at a moment's notice.

"It's getting a little worse each day," said Mike Kuypers, who supervises the Florida Division of Forestry district that includes the two-county area. "Every time you think you're catching up, you have six or seven new fires."

No new damages were reported Wednesday, as firefighters from the forestry division, both counties and many municipalities continued their efforts. They worked in severe conditions with the heat index topping 100 degrees and winds, at times up to 20 mph, blowing from almost every possible direction. But smoke plagued the aerial attack.

Airplanes and helicopters were being used, including three National Guard Blackhawk helicopters staging out of the Flagler County Airport. But at one point, Kuypers said, smoke created such visibility problems that the aircraft had to be grounded for a short time.

In Volusia County, five new fires flared up, including two along S.R. 40 and one on Old Oak Circle in Pierson.

One of those was a 300-acre fire near the intersection of State Road 11 and the other was a 50-foot by 50-foot fire at Plantation Pines, which was quickly contained. Parts of both roads were closed, including seven miles of S.R. 40, which remained closed Wednesday and only residents allowed in. The highway reopened about 9 p.m.

Carmen Clifton, who lives near the intersection of S.R. 40 and S.R. 11, said she noticed smoke billowing from woods near her home just before lunchtime and called the forestry division. The fire was behind her neighbor's home and to the right, "just across the creek." The neighbor, Joan Powell, was at work but Clifton went over and hosed down the house until firefighters arrived and told her to leave. Soon, helicopters arrived and began dipping water out of two 3-acre ponds the Cliftons have on their farm where her husband's family has lived for 160 years.

"It's better to have dead fish and no fires than plenty of fish and the fires burning up everything," Clifton said. "So the fire trucks and news trucks have been here all afternoon and I've been selling peas in between.

"I wasn't really afraid because I knew there was a lot of equipment around," she said. "It's just a lot of stress."

Her neighbor was among three homes in the area evacuated.

Seven miles east of the Cliftons, along S.R. 40 west of Ormond Beach, traffic backed up a quarter-mile Wednesday afternoon as sheriff's deputies blocked traffic. Cars were turned back toward town unless they had identification that proved residency.

Tammy Parks, who lives on nearby Appaloosa Lane, two blocks east of Pinto, said her husband was trying to get home from Ocala but was detoured at S.R. 11.

In southern Volusia, off Maytown-Osteen Road east of Osteen, residents began returning Wednesday to remote neighborhoods where five homes and dozens of hunting camps were destroyed overnight Monday by a 1,200-acre wildfire.

That road closed Wednesday between Gobbler's Lodge and Bell Ridge Road, in part because of active fire and in part because of concerns about falling fire-damaged pine trees. But residents who had been under a voluntary evacuation order were allowed to return. The road reopened Wednesday evening.

A man accompanying his mother sifting through burnt rubble of her weekend getaway rental home said a neighbor lost two hunting dogs.

Along Saylor Road, fireplaces, stoves, bathtubs, pots and pans were all that could be identified from the remains of 10 residences.

A woman who didn't want to be interviewed or photographed said she lost all her orchids. Her son, who also did not identify himself, sifted under the bent and burnt frame of a bed looking for a pistol he couldn't find.

"That's where I kept it, under the bed," his mother told him, as he poked into ashes and retrieved what looked like a gun barrel.

Other homes had scorched orange trees in the yard while others had burned out pickups, tractor mowers and trailers.

In Flagler, the 2-week-old, 4,300-acre Espanola fire gained new ground Wednesday.

County spokesman Carl Laundrie said the fire made "a strong run" east but was stopped west of the railroad tracks west of U.S. 1.

At Seminole Woods in southern Flagler, things got "kind of crazy there for a little while," said Todd Schroeder, a spokesman for the forestry division.

Flagler County's Fireflight helicopter started dropping buckets of water on the flames. Yellow fire hoses snaked like pythons along the road as a Palm Coast ladder truck sprayed jets of water.

The fast-moving fire was most likely sparked by a "spot-over," an ember carried by the wind and landing on the parched ground, said Palm Coast Fire Chief Mike Beadle. No one was injured and no homes were damaged but three or four vacant lots burned.

Neighbors quickly joined forces. Randy Hoback, a dust mask around his neck, was on the roof of Canna and Mike Mittelman's house, holding a garden hose as he doused the roof with water. At one point, Hoback said, the flames were about a hundred yards away and towering 40 or 50 feet.

"For about 10 minutes, I thought it was coming across the canal," Hoback said, "but they were able to drop one huge bucket that got it stopped from coming across."

-- Staff Writers Patricio G. Balona and Audrey Parente contributed to this report.

Name of Fire (listed by start date): acreage

Flagler

Powerline #2: 21

Spaulding: 4.5

Dog Pen: 58.1

Yelvington: 15

Strickland: 5

Espanola: 4,300

White Eagle: 134.1

Strawn #1: 85

Plum Creek S.R. 40: 0.4

Spruce Street: 0.1

Strawn #2: 8

Tattoo West: 7.5

Ranch House: 39

San Marco: 0.1

Road 80: 0.2

Southwest Pine Island: 0.8

John Campbell #1: 0.5

John Campbell #2: 3

Relay Tower: 0.3

Road 72/76: 2

Grand Champion: 0.2

Lehigh Road: 1.3

Slippery Rock: 2

Volusia

Shell Harbor: 243

Lake Woodruff: 40

Lake Harney Shore: 3

Larkspur: 350

Doeneck: 0.3

Break 9: 18.4

Hunting Camp Rd 64: 33

Lake Harney Rd: 18.5

Break 8: 12

Break 13: 1.5

Weaver Push: 6

Tomoka Park: 0.2

Tomoka Park #2: 6

River Road East: 1.6

Puckett: 0.2

Daugherty: 0.2

Dew Drop: 0.6

Duroc Drive: 4.5

Pistol Range: 3.8

Camelia: 0.2

Airport: 0.1

Ranchette Road: 4

Plum Creek: 0.1

Road 5: 0.1

Clark Bay: 15

Stacy Grove: 0.1

Larkspur East: 0.7

Technetics: 1

Daytona North: 1.5

92 West Parkway: 0.1

Maytown Road: 1,200

Weaver Push #2: 2.5

West Highbanks: 7 442

West: 24 Break 1: 0.1

Clinton Cemetary: 45

I-95 Possum Camp: 7

State Road 40: 300

Edgewater: 5-6

Old Oak Circle, Pierson: 2-3

Source: Florida Division of Forestry

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