SAN DIEGO — 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 fire was reported about 1:40 p.m. and was burning on both sides of Montezuma Road, just east of Fairmount Avenue, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. It was described as moving rapidly, with multiple structures threatened. It had grown to around 40 acres by 3:45 p.m.

The blaze had damaged an unknown amount of homes Thursday afternoon, but no injuries had been reported, said Jose Ysea, public information officer for the city’s Office of Emergency Services.

San Diego police officers were going door-to-door evacuating residents. Mandatory evacuations were south of Interstate 8, west of Hewlett Drive and Collwood Boulevard, north of Monroe Avenue and east of Interstate 805, encompassing the neighborhoods of Talmadge, College Area, Normal Heights and Kensington. The Allied Gardens Recreation Center, at 5155 Greenbrier Ave., is being used as a temporary evacuation center.

Hardy Elementary School, located near Montezuma and Remington roads, was also evacuated Thursday afternoon with students and staff sent to San Diego State University’s Viejas Arena, fire officials said.

Fire officials said that the canyons behind Lucille Drive in Talmadge and Alvarado Estates in the College Area were burning. Montezuma has been shut down in both directions, and motorists are asked to avoid the area.

Police said several other roads in the area — including Collwood Boulevard, between Monroe Avenue and Montezuma, Fairmont Avenue from Interstate 8 to Aldine Drive and Camino Del Rio south of Fairmont — would be closed until at least midnight. Traffic was snarled in the neighborhoods, as well as I-8 due to the Fairmount exit closure.

Crews from multiple agencies were on scene, including air assets that were dropping water and fire retardant on the flames, fire officials said.

SDSU, to the immediate east of the evacuation zone, told students and staff to expect road closures and delays but that the campus was not under threat. The traffic mess prompted the baseball team to cancel its Halloween Home Run Derby set for 5 p.m.

Tashayla Paige, who went to Viejas to pick up her daughter after being evacuated from Hardy Elementary, broke down when she didn’t immediately find the 6-year-old girl on the field. Her daughter had gone with a teacher to get a drink of water.

“It was pretty intense but I’m glad we’re together now,” Paige said as she embraced her daughter. The mother said she did not get a direct alert about the evacuations but learned about it upon arriving at the school for normal pick-up.

Nearby was Ayako Do, who was picking up her son and a few of his friends from Hardy.

“I was freaked out because (the fire) seemed so close,” said Do, as the children in costume huddled near her. They said they had just completed a fire drill a few weeks ago.

Near the elementary school on 54th Street, dozens of cars made their way farther east away from the fire. One man was seen hosing down the roof of his house from the second floor.

About an hour earlier to the south, a blaze broke out near Quarry and Sweetwater roads in the La Presa area, at the western end of the reservoir. The blaze initially threatened an apartment complex, and residents were ordered to evacuate, said San Miguel Fire Chief Andy Lawler.

That order for homes south of Jamacha Boulevard was soon downgraded to a warning as crews gained the upper hand, according to county officials. The blaze has charred about 12 acres.

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