Terrified tourists rushed to save race horses from a fire near Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races in West Virginia early Monday morning, but the fire still killed 27 animals.

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While capturing the fast-moving fire on their cell phone camera, Steve Clark and Amber Taylor ran towards the barns near Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races.

"The heat itself, I just felt like my shoes were going to melt right off my feet," said Amber Taylor.

As the fire quickly climbed up to the power lines spreading from one building to the next, the couple worked alongside authorities to try and pull as many horses as possible from the stables.

Taylor told us, "I was haltering horses and passing them off, going from stall to stall."

Track worker Kenny Gray described the scene: "The flames were straight in the air 100 feet in the air and the barn was totally in flames."

Gray was among the first on scene. He says his heart was aching as he realized a number of horses would not make it out.

"You could hear 'em kicking," said Gray. "There was no chance of them getting out. Zero."

But the fire and the billowing smoke inside quickly became too much.

In all, 27 horses died and three barns burned to the ground. Twenty-six horses got out alive with the help of people like Gray, Clark and Taylor.

Several of the horses raced at the track, but the barns are not owned by Charles Town Races. Witnesses say a large race was held on Sunday so the barns were full.

“We had flames shooting 60 feet in the air when we arrived on the scene,” said Charles Town Independent Fire Company Fire Chief Ed Smith.

Even as the surviving horses were walked to a new barn Monday afternoon, people in the tight-knit, backstretch community thought about the ones that died.

Sharon Johnson owned one of the barns and leased stalls to trainers. Johnson shared, "I feel very bad about this. I'm a horse lover and it breaks my heart that they've lost that many."

Steve Clark and Amber Taylor, who own horses of their own in Virginia, say they just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

“For whatever reason, I was supposed to be there,” said Taylor.

Monday morning as fire crews cleared the rubble, four tiny miracles emerged: four little barn kittens were scooped up by fire crews.