MONTEREY, Calif. (WCMH)–A California Highway Patrol officer is being called a hero after saving two kids from a burning car in Monterey.

Officer Kaleo Clissold was driving on Highway 1 when he says the car in front of him began to smoke.

“All of a sudden I see flames, like ten feet of flames just shooting out underneath the car,” he said. “Pieces of car actually on fire falling off.”

He told the driver to pull off at the next exit, and then got to work.

“My first thought was just to get everybody out of the car as quickly as we can in case the car was just going to fully engulf in flames,” he said.

But it wasn’t easy. Officer Clissold says the driver’s side door was jammed, so the driver had to climb out the passenger side–and the back doors were locked. A boy and a girl were inside.

“I had to reach through and unlock them try to get the doors open as quickly as I could to get them unbuckled out of their car seats and out of the car.”

Clissold said that in emergencies like this, every second counts. Even the simple act of unlocking a door can mean the difference between life and death.

“It makes your heart race and you kind of just disregard anything that might be dangerous,” he said. “That’s just our job, I mean, that’s what I signed up for when I started, so it’s nothing special.”