Big response to fast moving fire

BOISE - A big fire in the Boise Foothills sent tons of smoke and ash into the sky, and made some residents nervous as the flames grew close to homes.

Photos of the fire

As KTVB.COM was the first to report, the fire started at about 2:05 p.m. in the area of N. 36th Street and Hill Road. A huge plume of smoke could be seen from Downtown Boise and all over the area. Flames burned within 30 yards of a few homes at one point. The fire did not burn any homes, and no one was evacuated.

It started in the backyard of a home on Stone Creek Way. The fire has been ruled accidental. Fire investigators say a resident left oily rags on a wooden deck. The heat caused spontaneous combustion, which led the fire to grow from the deck into a yard and off into the Foothills.

Scott Evans/KTVB

The fire started on the deck of this home when oily rags ignited.

Crews swung into action, digging fire lines, dropping water and setting back burns. Within an hour, the flames were mostly out. Several helicopters worked the scene dropping buckets of water in temperatures that reached into the upper 90s.

Winds blew to the northeast at five to ten miles an hour - a fact that helped save homes, carrying the flames away from the hillside houses.

The fire blackened about 30 acres of the hillside.

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