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Water spills from a bucket under helicopter after it loaded up at a pond at the Sandia Peak Ski Area on Tuesday, April 21, 2015. (Greg Sorber/Albuquerque Journal)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Firefighters responded to a fire that started Tuesday afternoon in the Sandia Mountains, according to Marta Call, spokeswoman for the Cibola National Forest.

The fire burned three acres near the north end of the Sandia Ranger District off Placitas Road in Las Huertas Canyon, she said.

“The wind picked up and it ran up the hill a bit,” Call said. “Then it hit a rocky area and smoldered and smoked.’

The blaze, which officials named Las Placitas Fire, was 50 percent contained as of 9 p.m., and the Mount Taylor Hotshots were on scene attempting to get it fully contained by 11 p.m.

A fire truck responds to a fire near NM-165 in the Sandia Mountains on Tuesday, April 21, 2015. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Albuquerque Journal)

“It laid itself down and we got some good containment on it,” Call said. “It was just little guy.”

The hotshots had been conducting a prescribed burn about an hour and a half away when they were called to respond to the Sandias.

Matt Lamb, a battalion chief for the Cibola National Forest and National Grasslands, said the fire was burning on burn scar from a fire he believes was in the 1980s.

“It looked like fuel was down below the road and most of the fire was above it,” Lamb said.

Call said there is no danger to residents, and the nearest power line is 6.5 miles away.

Journal Staff reporter Ollie Reed Jr. contributed to this report.

— This is a developing story. Additional information will be added as it becomes available.