A rapid moving fire sparked in the College Area off Fairmount & Montezuma Roads Thursday afternoon. According to an emergency alert from San Diego State University, police and SDFD crews were “conducting proactive evacuations." The university said there was no immediate threat to campus.

A rapidly growing brush fire chewed through canyons of thick brush and palm trees in the San Diego College Area and Talmadge neighborhoods Thursday afternoon, damaging homes and prompting widespread evacuations.

The brush fire sparked around 1:30 p.m. on the south side of Montezuma Road — an area filled with old, dry palm trees, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue spokesperson Monica Munoz — and quickly jumped the road and began spreading uphill.

The Fire-Rescue Department says a fast-moving fire in the College Area triggered an evacuation order for many homes and an elementary school nearby Thursday afternoon.

All evacuation orders have been lifted in parts of San Diego after a brush fire erupted near the San Diego State University campus. T/Fairmount Fire had