A vegetation fire that sparked Wednesday morning burned 1,200 acres in the rural eastern area of San Luis Obispo County.

At around 9:20 a.m., the Chimineas Fire ignited off Chimineas Ranch Road west of the Carrizo Plain National Monument, according to authorities.

It quickly sent up a large plume of smoke as Cal Fire SLO responded with multiple engines and aircraft. Multiple fire cameras on UC San Diego’s ALERT California network showed burning through rolling hills of grass.

By midday, the fire had grown to 356 acres, Cal Fire said in a post on X.

A couple hours later at 2:30 p.m., it had more than tripled in size to 1,200 acres, according to a Facebook post from the Bureau of Land Management.

By that time, however, crews had made good progress, and containment was at 50%.

“Crews are continuing to improve containment lines and currently, the forward rate of spread has been stopped,” the BLM said.