Authorities in southern California ordered the evacuation of 82,000 people on Tuesday, after a wildfire broke out in a mountain pass and rapidly engulfed 9,000 acres (3,642 hectares), an official said.

Officials said 700 firefighters were battling the blaze in an area called the Cajon Pass, the latest in a series of wildfires that have blackened nearly 300,000 acres (121,400 hectares) of the drought-parched US West.

"It is a very fast-moving fire, it has wind behind it," said US Forest Service spokeswoman Lyn Sieliet.