SAN MARCOS (CNS) - It took firefighters about an hour Friday to subdue a small roadside brush fire that briefly threatened a few homes just west of Palomar College.
The blaze erupted for unknown reasons about 9 a.m. off the 2400 block of South Rancho Santa Fe Avenue in San Marcos.
Deputies cleared people out of several residences along nearby De Leone Road and closed traffic lanes in the immediate area as a precaution while firefighters doused the flames, which blackened a roughly 50-by-50-foot area.
Investigators were looking into an unconfirmed report that someone threw a lit cigarette out of a car near where the blaze began spreading, city officials said.