Twenty vehicles were believed to have been destroyed by the fire which spread rapidly across Southern California

Panicked drivers on a California highway were forced to abandon their cars as a wildfire that stretched to 3,500 acres began to engulf their vehicles.

The fast-moving blaze began north of State Route 138 in the Baldy Mesa area on Friday afternoon, forcing both lanes of I-15 - the main road between Southern California and Las Vegas - to shut down.

Taya Hart, a 16-year-old from Nevada heading to San Diego for a soccer tournament, watched as a rapidly growing roadside fire encroached upon stalled vehicles in San Bernadino County and hundreds of people began running up an adjacent hillside to escape.

She phoned her mother as she ran, frantically telling her, 'I love you, Mom. But there’s a huge fire'.

Russell Allevato, who was travelling to Los Angeles from Michigan, said, 'We got out of the car and ran up the hill'. 

'We ran for our lives.'

Some scared motorists on the hill were seen vomiting as they waited for several hours. 

Officials say that 20 cars were destroyed and 10 were damaged on the highway, according to the Los Angeles Times.

It is thought that 44 vehicles overall, including two big rigs, were destroyed in the area of the blaze.

Tow trucks took the last abandoned cars away from the scene late Friday night, including a burnt out truck that had become melded together with the other vehicles it was carrying. 

Dramatic aerial pictures show flames reaching roughly 70 vehicles that were abandoned on the road, though reports suggest only two people suffered minor injuries.

Helicopters dropped water and fire retardant materials from overhead, and more than 20 fire engines were deployed, some of which were parked in front of houses to protect them. 

The fire which blew across the area in temperatures reaching the high 90s also hit houses, forcing residents to flee. 

Three homes and eight buildings such as sheds and barns burned as a result of the blaze, according to the San Bernadino 

Cal Fire’s Captain Liz Brown said Saturday that the fire slowed down over night, staying steady at its evening peak of 3,500 acres but with only five per cent containment.

'However, the fire burned a very wide area so there’s a lot of mop-up to be done,' she told KTLA. 

Some areas were evacuated in the Cajon Pass area along the freeway, about 55 miles northeast of Los Angeles.