Fire department officials said Monday they will not investigate a weekend fire that scorched a three-block area of brush on Homewood Golf Course at 20th Street and Duff Avenue.

The department responded to the fire Sunday just after 5 p.m., but it will not find out where the fire started or what caused it, said Capt. Tom Hilts of the Ames Fire Department.

“It was probably smoking materials, or it could have been kids,” he said. “On Sunday afternoon, it could have been kids screwing around in the timber.”

By the time the department was alerted to the fire, much of the area already was burned.

“It was mostly just leaves burning and some vegetation stuff,” Hilts said. “It was mostly in the wooded area off the golf course. It was just difficult to get to [in order] to get it out.”

Rick Ertz, recreation superintendent for Ames Parks and Recreation, said the area burned was between the sixth hole and the green on the eighth hole.

“From my observation, other than the brush and the leaves, there’s minimal damage to vegetation,” Ertz said.

Parks and Recreation officials will not need to replant any vegetation on the public course, Ertz said.

Hilts said it took about three hours to extinguish the fire. He said built-up leaf piles from a city ordinance prohibiting leaf burning could have contributed to the spreading of the fire.

“It’s just real dry right now, and we don’t have any open burning in Ames,” he said.

The department doesn’t necessarily patrol for people breaking leaf-burning rules, but officials will respond to residential complaints.

“We pretty much rely on citizens to police it if they see someone burning leaves and stuff like that,” Hilts said.