![\"Malia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_8184.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nA wildfire near Brengle Terrace Park in Vista forced dozens of families to evacuate Sunday morning as flames threatened nearby homes.<\/p>\n
Malia Lamaku saw smoke from the other side of a hill near her home on Oak Street. “It was just a huge cloud of smoke, gray dark smoke. I couldn’t see the flames,” she said.<\/p>\n
The fire spread quickly not long after sunrise, initially burning more than 100 feet along a row of trees and coming close to apartments and town homes. <\/p>\n
Lamaku knew it was time to leave with her sister, mother, dog and six cats.<\/p>\n
\u201c I felt relief (once we left). We have all of our animals and everything. So, worse case, everything we need is with us.\u201d Lamaku said.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tM.G. PerezM.G. Perez<\/p>\n
Malia Lamaku stands with her pets safe in the family car. She evacuated with her mother and sister, Sunday, to Vista High School, Vista, Calif., September 6, 2026.<\/p>\n
Philip Escobedo and his 8-year-old son, Ryker, smelled something suspicious before evacuating from their home in the Alta Vista neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe smell was like somebody doing a bon fire. Then I heard the alert with the evacuation warning (on my phone),” Philip Escobedo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur neighbor told us (the fire) was in the park a couple of miles down the street and we gotta evacuate,” his son said. <\/p>\n
Evacuated families were directed to Vista High School, where a temporary shelter was set up as part of the community’s safety plan.<\/p>\n
Matthew Doyle, superintendent of the Vista Unified School District, said the campus has been designated as a community school.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe it\u2019s a blessing that it\u2019s a little drizzly (today),\u201d Doyle told NBC 7 after welcoming families. \u201cOur main focus is to keep our families safe, and provide for them. As you know, families have a variety of needs.\u201d Doyle said.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Families](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_8188.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tM.G. PerezM.G. Perez<\/p>\n
Families were given snacks while they waited at Vista High School, Sunday, until an evacuation ordered was lifted, Vista, Calif., September 6, 2026.<\/p>\n
Less than two hours after the fire began, it was out and people were allowed to return home. <\/p>\n
Among those safe were the Lamaku family’s pets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been doing a lot better, especially just sitting here,” Malia said. “They\u2019ve calmed down and understand they\u2019re safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The evacuation order was lifted, with no property damage or injuries reported.<\/p>\n
As of Sunday afternoon, investigators with the Vista Fire Department were still looking into what caused the fire. <\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A wildfire near Brengle Terrace Park in Vista forced dozens of families to evacuate Sunday morning as flames…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75,9902],"class_list":["post-455757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-vista"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}