'We Drove Straight Through the Fire': Kids Rescued from Summer Camp as Trees 'Exploded'

Wildfires are raging across the western part of the U.S., and thousands of people have been evacuated, including one group of children who were in serious danger at their summer camp.

Firefighters are battling 14 large fires from the air and the ground across California.

The Alamo fire, which is burning in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, is covering an area two-thirds the size of Washington, D.C.

In Santa Barbara, flames shut down a major highway and trapped 90 children and their counselors at a nearby summer camp.

"They had flames directly in front where they could not access these children," said Kelly Hoover of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department.

A bulldozer helped to break through the flames to rescue the kids.

Nine-year-old Finnegan McWeeney described the harrowing rescue saying, "We drove straight through the fire. There was these trees super high that were exploding."

The Whittier fire, which has spread across Santa Barbara county, has burned more than 10,000 acres.

But it isn't just California.

Wildfires are raging across the West as nearly 40 infernos blaze from the Southwest to the Rockies.

In Arizona, officials said a forest fire in one county has burned over 35,000 acres.

Meanwhile, in Oroville, California, residents who escaped the fires said they are grateful to be alive.
   
"Over that ridge, if there's a thing such as hell, it was on the other side of that ridge, because that glow was just coming up out of there," said Michael Peabody who was forced to evacuate.

Jennifer Schlitten said, "We're lucky. We're OK."