DENVER -- Gabriel Trejos was sitting in row 19 when Continental Airlines flight 1404 to Texas caught fire and crashed into a ravine.

Gabriel Trejos said he was looking out the window as the ground pushed away. In his lap, was 1-year-old son Elijah.

"I started holding him a little tighter because he wasn’t in a seat belt," Gabriel said. "The plane got really bumpy … and I figured we’re hitting the ground now … so this isn’t going to be a good outcome."

"The plane kind of buckled toward the middle … I kind of saw the seats … buckling toward each other," Trejos said.

"I braced my knees up front of me because all the chairs were kind of closing in."

How exactly the 737 caught fire is unclear at this point. Trejos said “it took forever for the plane to stop.”

The plane veered off course about 2,000 feet from the end of the runway and did not appear to have gotten airborne, authorities said.

On Sunday morning debris could be seen scattered on the runway, with the plane about 200 yards away.

When the airliner finally did come to a rest, the right engine was on fire and the plane was sitting in a ravine off the runway.

Trejos was sitting on the right side of the plane just over the wing. "I could feel the heat coming from the window," he said. "You could smell the plastic … the gas … whatever was burning."

Trejos handed his son to his wife Maria because she was closest to the aisle.

"I can remember we were in the aisle and I didn’t want to leave without my husband," Maria Trejos said. "But I knew I needed to get the baby out."

"Everybody was frantic," Gabriel Trejos said. "So I looked behind me and it would be easier to get out the center of the plane where the emergency door was over the wing."

The couple with their son made their way to the emergency exit. "We had another guy yelling 'the plane is going to blow up … the plane is going to explode.' We told him, 'please don't. We've got kids. We don't want to scare anybody,' " Gabriel Trejos said.

The 110 passengers and five crew members made it out on emergency slides, and firefighters extinguished the flames quickly.

"I looked back at the plane … and I was thinking this reminds me of a movie. We're supposed to run up this hill really fast because its going to explode and stuff is going to go flying. It just doesn’t even seem real," Maria Trejos said.

Maria, who is pregnant, said she is thankful to be alive. An ultrasound showed the baby will be OK. "He's very active," Maria Trejos said.

Both agree they are lucky to be alive.

"That was a pretty scary ride," Gabriel Trejos said.