A wildfire that burned near a beachfront community on majestic Discovery Bay near Port Townsend was being mopped up Tuesday morning, and no homes were in danger.

The fire, estimated at 30 acres, brushed dangerously close to parts of the 100-home Beckett Point community Monday afternoon, prompting authorities to warn residents that they were on a one-minute notice to flee. Some residents left voluntarily.

"It was a long skinny fire along a bluff," said Nancy McDaniel, deputy program manager with the Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management.

The fire was 80 percent contained Monday night.

"We're just working to clean up and make sure there's no burning embers," McDaniel said.

A cause has not been determined, but police interviewed some boys who reportedly were trying to light firecrackers with WD-40, said Keppie Keplinger, a spokeswoman also with the Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management.

The fire, first reported at 3 p.m., started near the shoreline of the Beckett Point community, a cluster of vacation cabins and year-round homes off Cape George Road about 8 miles southwest of Port Townsend. About 50 of the homes are on the shores of Discovery Bay, a bucolic, shellfish-rich inlet that has seen an influx of affluent retirees.

Joe Nole, chief criminal deputy with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, said three boys, one 11 and two 12, may be responsible for the fire. One boy lives in Beckett Point and two were visiting a grandmother who has a summer cabin there.

After the fire erupted, said Nole, one of the boys ran screaming to a neighbor's house. The neighbor grabbed a shovel, discovered the can of WD-40 and called the fire department. "The kid was crying, saying it was all his fault," Nole said. "He was definitely freaked out. It wasn't malicious, but stupid playing that went bad. It's still not excusable."

Nole said the investigation has been turned over to the state Department of Natural Resources.

He said the fire caused little damage, just grass and some trees. About 90 firefighters and support staff responded to the blaze.

McDaniel said it was a hard fire to battle because of the steep bluff, but neighbors were effective in hosing down their own homes.

Patti Sahlinger, a resident of Beckett Point, said Monday that the fire quickly ran up from the shore into the hillside above the community, and then raced back down. TV helicopters captured footage of the fire licking through brown grass as firefighters stood on rooftops and decks. The homes are on 30-foot lots, leaving little defensible space for firefighters. "We really don't have any protection," Sahlinger said.

Firefighters warned residents they might have to quickly flee. Some packed cars for a quick escape. Others, Sahlinger said, placed boats and kayaks at the waterline, preparing to escape to the bay.

"We had many of our members scooping buckets from the bay or getting hoses to wet down as much as we could," she said.

Some residents who were away from home at the time returned to find their road blocked.

"They won't let anyone down the hill," said Jim Buckley, a Port Townsend resident who was heading to dinner at a friend's home on Discovery Bay. They were turned back by fire and rescue officials.

About 90 firefighters from at least five state jurisdictions, including the U.S. Navy station at Indian Island, battled the fire, digging firebreaks and felling smoking timbers. A state firefighting helicopter flew in from Lake Chelan and conducted at least 10 water dumps on hot spots on the hillsides.

At a home about 500 feet up the hillside from the bay, Joe D'Amico, owner of a private security company, hosed down an out-of-town client's yard as firefighters sprayed a defensive line of foam.

"Everything with a faucet, we had on," D'Amico said.

As firefighters contained and mostly controlled the fire, crews found that it had veered as close as 25 feet to some houses. Bill Beezley, a spokesman for East Jefferson Fire and Rescue, said a few scattered homes along Discovery Bay, south Beckett Point, were potentially in the fire's path.

Mop-up could take up to four or five days, he said.

Sahlinger said the firefighting efforts appear to have saved the homes, but the hillside, still cloaked in smoke, was charred.

Seattle Times staff reporters Lornet Turnbull and Susan Gilmore contributed to this report.