A semi truck caught fire on the I-15 Freeway in Barstow on Monday, creating a massive traffic snarl for drivers heading to and from Las Vegas. 

The blaze was reported at around 1:20 p.m., just north of mile marker 133 in the Baker area, according to California Highway Patrol officers. Initially, they said that the closure would last for about an hour, but as the flames intensified they were forced to increase the time to several hours. 

Firefighters said that the truck's brakes had caught fire, quickly spreading to the tires, which exploded and sent debris flying across all lanes of the four-lane freeway. 

Officers began to turn all northbound traffic around at Zzyzx Road at around 2:15 p.m. 

At 3:30 p.m., CHP said that the fire conditions had improved and that traffic would be allowed to start moving through the center divider instead of being turned around at Zzyzk. 

As of 4:30 p.m., the leftmost lane was open to northbound traffic, but the second lane remained closed as crews worked to extinguish the fires and clean the debris from the road. 

Video posted on social media showed that the entire big rig was completely destroyed by the fire.