BOISE — Boise and Eagle Fire resources and the Bureau of Land Management responded late Monday to a rapidly growing grass fire in the Boise Foothills stretching hundreds of acres.

In a Monday afternoon press conference — located at the Crestline trailhead adjacent to Claremont Drive — Boise Fire reported the foothills fire is estimated to have grown significantly while winds were pushing the fire to the northeast.

A 5 p.m. update from Boise Fire said the fire was an estimated 2,000 acres with no reported injuries. The initial fire call reportedly originated around Crestline Drive, near the Boise Heights.

As of the conference, no evacuation orders were in place and information was not yet available on the level of containment for the fire or its cause.

“When a call comes in, the biggest challenge for us is to determine where it is and how to access it, especially the foothills,” Roy Mitchell, Boise Fire’s division chief of special operations, said adding that while it is “hard to see what started it,” there will be an investigation into the cause.

Boise Fire is currently asking residents to avoid the Mountain Cove Road area as well as the Military Reserve System. The former borders the Boise Heights neighborhood, while the latter is just north of Boise’s East End neighborhood. Mitchell noted while some structures around Mountain Cove Road initially presented a risk, responding crews were able to protect the area.

Asked about the potential risk from unspent ordinance at Boise’s military reserve, Mitchell said agencies were aware there are certain areas where crews will avoid bringing vehicles through, but didn’t know if they necessarily posed a risk of worsening the fire.

Boise Fire’s Assistant Fire Chief Brad Bolen said air vehicles have been used to assist with the difficulty of addressing fire on the terrain, including a helicopter dropping water as well as several single-engine air tanker planes dropping fire retardant.

Bolen said Boise Fire initially reported responded to the fire near the 1900 block of North Claremont Drive at approximately 1:30 p.m. At the time, the fire was estimated to only be about one-quarter acre in size, according to the department’s Facebook page.

Bolen said Monday’s fire represented the first “significant wildfire conditions” observed by the department this year and urged residents to recreate wisely.

Several residents were looking on from outside their homes Monday afternoon as planes circled dropping fire retardant while flames could be heard crackling and the smell of burning vegetation permeated through the air.

Dean Shultz, whose residence on Claremont Drive directly overlooks the fire, said he has been able to see the fire grow exponentially after first seeing signs of smoke between 1:15 and 1:30 p.m., followed by a fire hand crew going up the Crestline trial to the fire shortly thereafter.

“I was on the front deck when I saw it start,” Shultz said.

Further information wasn’t available as of press time.