Wildfires assaulting several states in the West forced thousands from their homes over the weekend.

In Idaho, more than a thousand firefighters are battling flames that have consumed 88,000 acres.

About 170 miles north of Sacramento, Calif., a fire is ripping through thick forests. The blaze has destroyed homes and businesses.

About 3,500 homes in Tehama and Shasta counties are also being threatened as the fire continues to spread. Resident have been told to evacuate. Some barely made it out.

"There were flames on the road on either side and I looked up and everything was black," California evacuee Zachary Pritchard recalled.

"It was like I was in a black box and I just drove through it and I couldn't breathe," he said.

In Washington state, the weather is helping firefighters get control of a blaze that destroyed 70 homes east of Seattle.

But hundreds of residents who were allowed to return home over the weekend are just beginning to process the extent of the damage.

"People are finding a little bit of everything. Some homes were damaged, some homes were destroyed..." Fred Slyfield, emergency management specialist for Kittitas County, said Saturday.

"It's like a death in the family," one survivor said.