All evacuations were lifted by Wednesday afternoon — although some roads remained closed — after crews got a handle on a fire that led thousands of people to flee their homes and businesses in Rancho Bernardo that morning. San Diego Fire-Rescue officials ordered a massive response after the blaze in the area of Bernardo Center Drive and Camino del Norte was first discovered, and they initially worried it could reach 100 acres. Scores of firefighters headed to the site, helicopters made water drops and several air tankers dropped fire retardant. By midmorning, the air tankers were released. An assistant chief said the fire was holding at around 7 acres, and he was hopeful residents could return to their homes by the afternoon. The region is under a red-flag warning with bone-dry conditions, but winds were fairly light. Evacuations had been ordered for neighborhoods just west of Interstate 15 and south of Camino de Norte. The evacuation area had stretched west to Peñasquitos Drive and Dove Canyon Drive, and a temporary evacuation point was set up at a nearby shopping center. During the day, about 8,200 people live and work in the zones ordered and warned to evacuate. Rolling Hills Elementary School students were evacuated to Poway High School; RB Kinder Care was also evacuated. Areas just west of that were under an evacuation warning. Some residents were asked to shelter in place. Wendy Hoke didn’t hesitate when she took out her trash and saw smoke. She grabbed her 14-year-old son and the family dog and fled. “I have been in enough evacuations and fires in California that I just don’t wait,” she said. She was among several area residents who made their way to a nearby strip mall parking lot where evacuees had been directed. The fire burned on the north side of a hill just off Camino del Norte. On the south side of that hill, up a steep grade, sit homes on Paseo Montanoso and several short dead-end streets branching off of it. Julie Hebron said that as soon as she and her husband saw smoke from their Paseo Montanoso home, they started packing. Although they ended up staying put, the fire came very close. “It was scary,” she said. “But the response was really quick.” Firefighters stopped the blaze from burning down the hill into her neighborhood. Within a few hours, a fresh coat of red fire retardant capped the hill, and the sounds of crews sawing away at brush testified to just how close the danger had come. Other schools in the area kept students indoors during the blaze. “We understand this is distressing and we want to assure you that we are closely monitoring the situation,” Poway Unified told parents in an email. The northbound and southbound off-ramps at Camino del Norte were closed for the fire response, Caltrans said on X. Although people were allowed to go home, the following streets remained closed, according to San Diego police: Camino Del Norte at Interstate 15 Bernardo Center and Camino Del Norte Paseo Montanoso at Avenida De Los Lobos and Camino Del Norte One person was taken to a hospital to be treated for burn injuries. Ysea said the person had sustained mild to moderate injuries and was taken to UC San Diego Burn Center. The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but arson investigators will try to determine it, Assistant Fire Chief Dan Eddy told 10 News. He said the Fire Department brought in heavy resources to knock the fire down as quickly as possible and credited them with its limited growth. “We were expecting a potential of 20 acres or more,” he said. “To hold it at seven shows the cooperation with all of these agencies working together.” With the area under a red-weather warning,  he remained concerned about the winds picking up in the afternoon. He said fire crews were working to cool the fire down before winds were expected to shift between 2 and 3 p.m. “Our hope is to get people back home in the next couple hours,” he said. “If we can cool everything down by then, then everybody will get back in a little bit sooner.” The Center fire, also briefly called the Bernardo fire, is one of a string of blazes that firefighters have battled in recent days, due to a series of Santa Ana winds that have blown through San Diego County. A lack of rain and high-wind conditions have combined to raise the risk of downed power lines igniting a potential wildfire, which has prompted San Diego Gas & Electric to shut off electricity in specific areas. As of 4 p.m., some 8,000 SDG&E customers were without power across the county, and the utility had warned that another 75,000 may see their electricity cut if conditions worsen. A red flag warning issued by the National Weather Service remains in effect through 8 p.m. Thursday for the inland valley and mountain communities in the county. The National Weather Service says the Santa Anas will greatly strengthen on Thursday, gusting to 70 mph in the mountains and 40 mph or more along Interstate 8, east of Alpine. The relatively humidity will continue to be low, helping to elevate the risk of wildfires. The winds will be gone by Friday, and forecasters say a low pressure system might drop 0.50” to 1.00″ of rain in the mountains and 0.25″ at or near the coast, likely to occur Saturday into Sunday. Staff writers Maura Fox, Alex Riggins, Rob Nikolewski, Gary Robbins and Jemma Stephenson contributed to this report.