KUNA -- Fire crews responded quickly to a wild land fire that started burning Sunday in the area of Swan Falls Road, near Kuna.
The fire reached 550 acres Sunday, carried by wind in dry grass.
The Boise District Bureau of Land Management reports the Kave Fire started at 1 p.m. Sunday and was contained by 10 p.m.
Meridian, Melba and Kuna fire departments all responded to the fire, helping to secure a line around the perimeter.
On Sunday, fire experts with the Boise District BLM told KTVB the Kave Fire was a surprise.
“We had heavy rain yesterday (Saturday) and cooler temperatures,” said BLM Fire Information Officer Brandon Hampton. “This fire came to a surprise to all of us."
Hampton said the dry conditions are alarming this early in the fire season. It is only early June and already the BLM and other fire agencies have responded to a number of brush fires. Fire experts worry what the outlook will look like later in the summer.
“It has started off to be a very busy season fire," Hampton said. "It’s growing much more rapidly than they have in the past."
Hampton showed KTVB what the fuels enabling the Kave Fire looked like. Cheatgrass and seeding from years past that lies underneath newer grass is what poses the greatest fire threat.
‘It's just so volatile,” said Hampton. “It's just like gasoline on the ground.”
The Kave Fire grew fast. It went from a 200 acres to over 500 acres in just a matter of hours.
“We are preparing for the worst, hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst,” Hampton said about this year’s fire season.
While there are no fire restrictions currently in place for southwest Idaho, fire crews find themselves responding to fires that they believe have the potential to have never started.
“A lot of people thought we had a very wet spring with lots of moisture in the ground," Hampton said. "Unfortunately, that is just not the case."
He warned at this point, anything could spark a fire in the right conditions.
“Just one little tiny spark from a stray bullet, from a power line, from an exhaust,” he said. “Anything like that gets in here and it just goes like gasoline.”
Hampton, along with all fire departments responding to reports of fire around the Treasure Valley, asked that everyone keep the fire danger in mind. Although some areas of the valley still look green, Hampton asked people to think about what dead fuels lay underneath.
“Just general common knowledge that typically people don’t think about until later in the fire season,” he said. “Fire season is now here.”
The BLM has not yet said what caused the Kave Fire.
