This week's wildfires in San Diego County sparked evacuations on an unprecedented scale, public safety officials said Monday.

At various points throughout the day Monday, all of the residents of Ramona, Rancho Santa Fe, Fallbrook, as well as those who live in parts of Escondido, San Marcos, Poway, Scripps Ranch and Olivenhein, were under mandatory evacuations, officials said.

The La Costa area of Carlsbad also was under an evacuation advisory. And residents of Solana Beach were told to be ready to evacuate, just in case.

An estimated 300,000 people in all were told to flee approaching flames.

"That's a lot of people to evacuate," said Walt Ekard, chief administrative officer for San Diego County.

In contrast, tens of thousands were evacuated in the middle of the night four years ago when the Cedar and Paradise fires erupted in October 2003. Despite the overwhelming damage those fires caused -- they killed 16 people and destroyed more than 2,400 homes-- the evacuations largely were limited to parts of communities.

The twin fires did enormous damage in Ramona, Valley Center and Scripps Ranch. At 273,000 acres, the Cedar remains California's largest wildfire on record.

Despite the evacuation of more than a quarter million people this time around, the effort went relatively smoothly, Ekard said.

It helped, he said, that the county had gone through this before with the Cedar fire.

"In Ramona last night there was that huge traffic jam," Ekard said. "But that's 45,000 people. And no one was injured."

The backup was to be expected, Ekard said.

"There were two roads out. And, so, people had to wait in line for a long time," he said.

Matt Streck, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the timing also helped.

"The Cedar fire happened in the middle of the night," Streck said.

Deputies had to knock on people's doors after midnight while families were sleeping to warn them of the rapidly approaching danger.

"In this case the fires … all started in the morning or during the day," he said.

Streck said it also helped to have access to a reverse-911 system that notifies residents of the need to evacuate through their home telephones. Sheriff William Kolender said more than 80,000 calls were made through the system Monday.

But there are drawbacks.

"Not everybody has a (land-line) phone," Streck said. "I have a cell phone -- I live on a cell phone."

In the future, residents can look forward to being notified by cell phone, text message or e-mail. That's because the county in July voted to spend $200,000 on an Internet-based messaging system that is expected to be able to notify every home in the county within three hours, once it is activated down the road.

However one is notified, Kolender said, people need to respond.

"It is very important that they understand that their life is more important than property," he said, at a news conference. "When they don't leave, they not only threaten their lives, but they take firefighters and law enforcement away from what they're doing to get them out of the house."

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.