A forest fire in southern New Jersey that has shut a stretch of one of the state’s biggest thoroughfares is yet to be contained, sparking evacuations and threatening to snarl commuters.

The fire rapidly grew to 8,500 acres (3,440 hectares) in Ocean County, about 90 miles south of New York City, by late Tuesday evening, nearly tripling in size in just a few hours, according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service. An 11-mile section of the Garden State Parkway has been shut.