EMBED >More News Videos Incredible cellphone video captured the terrifying moments a father and son became trapped in a raging forest fire in Montana's Glacier National Park. MONTANA -- Incredible cellphone video captured the terrifying moments a father and son became trapped in a raging forest fire in Montana.Justin Bilton and his dad were touring the sights in the state's famous Glacier National Park, but when they tried to leave they drove straight into an inferno.The video showed the father and son seeing small bits of flames at first and then quickly they become surrounded by intense flames. "Oh my God. Oh, Jesus - God help us," Justin said.Ash, bits of tree and timber began hitting the front of the vehicle and windshield as Justin then blurts out his fear that their vehicle might explode. "Dad, what happens if a tree falls on us?" Justin said.As they stop in the middle of the inferno because a fallen tree blocked their path, the screen went black but Justin and his father continued talking and at one point, his father talked about getting out of the vehicle.The duo ended up backing out the way they came and emerged in a clearing. They then abandoned their vehicle and ran to nearby Lake McDonald. A ranger passing by in a boat plucked them from the shore and took them to safety.They watched as their vehicle was devoured by the flames.Hundreds of people were evacuated from the park after the wildfire destroyed at least nine homes and cabins.<doc-sep>Dramatic video captured a father and son making a desperate attempt to escape a forest fire as flames engulfed the roadway.Justin Bilton and his 70-year-old father Charles were vacationing on a lake in Glacier National Park in Montana.Park rangers had warned that lightning in the area could ignite fires, but they were not expected to spread. "So we watched it a while longer and realized that it looked like the fire definitely grew and so I said to my father, 'I think we need to get out of here,'" Justin said.The duo drove with fire spreading around them. "The wind shifted, the fire got real intense. And it got out of control," Charles said.At one point, they say the car got so hot that they believed it was going to explode.When they came across a burning tree, they threw the car in reverse - a decision they believe saved their lives. "When I put the car in reverse and looked out the back window I couldn't see anything. I didn't have the headlights anymore and somehow I was able to stay on the road," Justin said.They eventually came across a ranger on a boat who rescued them.------<doc-sep>When Elizabeth Bilton received a call from her son last week telling her that “everything is OK,” she immediately knew it wasn’t. Her son, Justin, and husband, Charles, were safe — that much was true. But her motherly instincts were right: The camping trip the pair had been on in the backwoods of Montana almost took a deadly turn. On Aug. 12, Justin and his father became temporarily trapped in their car along a winding road in Glacier National Park, after a wildfire that started on the ridgeline not far from their campsite quickly spread, burning acres of trees and creating a wall of flames and smoke that surrounded them on all sides. Advertisement “I have never seen anything like it,” Justin, 37, said in a telephone interview Monday. “It was just like looking at a war zone — like a nuclear bomb had gone off.” The Boston resident was on the last leg of a two-week vacation with his 70-year-old father when they found themselves caught in the harrowing situation, hoping to make it out of the fiery woods alive. Justin and Charles had driven down a dead-end road on Sunday to get to a trailhead that would take them to a campsite roughly two miles into the wilderness. A fire burns next to Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park in northwest Montana on Aug. 12. CHRIS PETERSON/HUNGRY HORSE NEWS VIA AP, FILE A “small fire, by Montana standards” had started on Howe Ridge, near the lake, the day prior, he said. At first, both father and son were unfazed by the smoke billowing in the distance. They even talked to some fire crews in the area who told them the fire was unlikely to spread. “It didn’t look like it was growing at all,” Justin said. Justin Bilton (left) and father Charlie. Justin Bilton But the winds picked up Sunday evening, shortly after they made camp, and things intensified. Suddenly, Justin said, the fire “exploded.” Advertisement “It grew . . . in a couple of hours,” he said. “I told my dad, ‘I think we need to get out of here before it gets any worse.’ ” The pair gathered their gear and headed through the woods toward their rental car, which they planned to drive back along Lake McDonald Road — the way they came in — to safety. “Everything looked fine for the most part,” Justin said of the start of their drive. “We thought, ‘We can get out of here.’ ” Initially, there was some “fire near the road,” he said. But after they took a few more turns, the situation deteriorated. “It was an inferno. It was just walls of flames on both sides of the car,” he said. “The car started getting hot really fast. It felt like it was a 100-degree day, and your car had been sitting in the parking lot all day.” A video taken from inside the car as Justin and his father tried to escape the inferno shows embers flying toward the windshield like a swarm of bugs on a highway. To the right and left of the vehicle, limbless and charred trees were glowing through the smoky forest air. Flames lined the dirt road and seemed to reach up toward the car like orange snakes, making a slight hissing sound. In the video, which has gone viral, a worried and shocked Justin can be heard praying that they make it out alive, as his father tries to calm him down, repeatedly telling him “you’re doing good, you’re doing good.” Advertisement That’s when things went from bad to worse: a tree ravaged by the intense fire had fallen down across the road, blocking their escape route. “I saw that and I thought we were going to die,” Justin said. “I thought we were trapped, there was no way we could turn around on the road.” With his father’s guidance, Justin kicked the car into reverse and drove the vehicle all the way back to the trailhead at the end of the road. At times, Justin said, he was going as fast as 40 miles per hour. “It was absolutely insane, I don’t know how I was able to keep the car on the road,” he said. “But somehow — a few prayers and a Higher Power — we stayed on the road.” Once they were back at the trailhead, which was safe from the fire for the time being, they walked down toward a nearby cabin to see if anyone could help them. That’s when they saw a small boat floating on Lake McDonald, with two people on board. “We flagged them down and they came over and grabbed us, and we got onto the boat,” said Justin. “Ten minutes later, we were on the water and we saw the whole part of the lake shore where we had been standing just go up in flames.” By Tuesday, Justin and his father were headed home to Boston, with little more than the clothes they had been wearing when they escaped the blaze two days prior. Advertisement Looking back, Justin said he’s grateful that a series of fortunate events — and the help of strangers — got him and his father out of the life-threatening scenario. “There are so many ‘what ifs,’ and things that seem too unlikely to be coincidental,” he said. “If another tree had fallen behind us while trying to reverse, we would have been dead. And if [those people] weren’t there in the boat, we would have been dead. That’s the most amazing thing to me.” Justin Bilton looked out at the wildfire from the safety of a boat. Justin Bilton Steve Annear can be reached at steve.annear@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @steveannear.<doc-sep>The American West is at the height of wildfire season, and a father and son who were camping in Glacier National Park got a close look — too close — at the park's Howe Ridge Fire when they had to drive through it in an attempt to escape it. The video above, taken by Justin Bilton, shows their ordeal, which he titled on YouTube, "That time we drove through hell in Glacier National Park (Howe Ridge)." Bilton said that he and his 70-year-old dad, Charlie, were on a backpacking trip across Wyoming and Montana and had set up camp near Lake McDonald. Then they realized that the fire, kindled by a lightning strike, was near them and growing rapidly. (It currently encompasses more than 7,800 acres.) The fire began to explode nearby. Bilton wrote on Facebook: "We hiked back to the car to get out where it was parked at the end of a dead end road. We had just driven this road (safely) 3 hours before to get in, and it was our only way out, apart from trying to stay ahead of the fire on foot. ..." So they began to run the fiery gantlet. In the video, Charlie speaks in a steady voice. "I think we can drive through this," Charlie says. "Dad, what if the car blows up?" Justin asks. "Then we're dead. Just keep driving. Not too too fast, we'll be OK," Charlie replies. You can also hear Justin asking what would happen if a tree fell on them. Then something almost as bad happens: Their escape is thwarted by a burning tree in the road. "We can't get out," Justin says. "Dad, we got to get out of here." On YouTube, Justin wrote: "After we reached the downed, burning tree seen at the end of the video, I had to reverse all the way back to the trailhead, where we were lucky to flag down a boat. We were rescued by two park employees and taken to safety. The car burned in the fire." The car was a rental. "When my dad decided he was going to get out to move the burning tree, I was most scared because I didn't think I could stop the stubborn old man!" Justin wrote. "He's def cool under pressure." Related Video:<doc-sep>
Cellphone video has captured the terrifying moments of a father and son barely escaping with their lives after driving through a forest fire. Justin Bilton and his 70-year-old father Charlie were backpacking through Wyoming and Montana and had set up camp at Glacier National Park for their final stop when a lightning storm struck. The following day, August 12, the strike ignited a fire, which turned into the Howe Ridge Fire that has burned thousands of acres along Lake McDonald. The pair realized they needed to get out of there and hopped in their rental car but soon they had driven into - and were surrounded by - intense flames. Justin Bilton and his 70-year-old father Charlie (left and right) were camping on August 11 at Glacier National Park in Montana when a lightning storm struck After the small fire turned into the Howe Ridge Fire that began burning thousands of acres along Lake McDonald, the pair hopped into their rental car to escape the flames As they drove further down the road, Justin and Charlie's car became surrounded by more intense flames and embers began hitting the windshield In the video, Charlie is heard speaking to his son in a steady voice, trying to calm the young man's nerves. 'I think we can drive through this,' Charlie says. 'Dad, what if the car blows up?' Justin asks. 'Then we're dead. Just keep driving. Not too too fast, we'll be okay,' Charlie replies. As their visibility becomes worse, and embers begin to hit the windshield, Justin becomes more and more concerned. 'The car is heating up, it's gonna explode,' Justin tells his father. 'Jesus. Please, God, help us.' In a post on Facebook, Justin said the pair had safely driven down the road just a few hours earlier to get into the park, but were trapped on a road that was their only way out. While driving they came across a downed tree that was on fire, which Charlie suggested they move using fire-proof gloves. 'When my dad decided he was going to get out to move the burning tree I was most scared because I didn't think I could stop the stubborn old man!' Justin wrote on Facebook. 'He's [definitely] cool under pressure.' After Justin and Charlie came across a downed tree, they were forced to reverse down the road they had driven and back to the lake On the lake they found two park employees, tour boat captain Jess Kimball and an intern ranger named Dave, in a boat who rescued them As of Sunday afternoon, the Howe Ridge Fire has burned more than 7,800 acres, according to the National Park Service They had to reverse through the fire to get back to the trailhead and down to the lake. They abandoned their car, which later succumbed to the flames. On the lake they found two park employees, tour boat captain Jess Kimball and an intern ranger named Dave, in a boat and rescued Justin and Charlie, reported KRTV. 'We looked back and just saw the whole lakeshore where we had been maybe 10 to 15 minutes before just completely go up in flames,' Justin told WHDH. 'I do think it was some kind of higher power looking out for us. It seems like it wasn't our time to go.' As of Sunday afternoon, the Howe Ridge Fire has burned more than 7,800 acres, according to the National Park Service. At least nine homes and cabins have been destroyed prompting evacuations of hundreds of people from several campgrounds.