tonight on "nightline" -- summer of flames. a scorching season of record-breaking wildfires across the country and tonight in the west, massive fires have forced thousands to flee. we're on the ground with firefighters battling the blazes. naming names. she tweeted the names of the boys who sexually abused her and then it got her in trouble with the law. tonight, one 17-year-old girl at the center of an online firestorm. plus, with michelle obama and over 50 pint-size chefs and one healthy menu and the

president crashing. inside the first ever kids' state dinner. good evening. i'm terry moran. and tonight, the west is burning. giant wildfires, thousands of acres wide are sweeping across idaho, california and other western states, adding more heat to what is already poised to be a record-breaking summer of fires. and it's not just flames ravaging the u.s., there's also been soaring temperatures, extreme drought and freak storms across the country. abc's neal karlinsky comes to us now from sutterville, idaho. >> reporter: we're driving into the fire zone. >> the area. >> reporter: thank you. getting into idaho isn't easy. a huge wildfire is burning.

the roads are choked with heavy smoke and long lines of firefighters. in the front lines we met teams from michigan, electrical alaska and oregon. tom colin is has been fighting fires 50 years. he's working construction in the off-season. >> you become a junkie and like this stuff. it's not for everybody. some get out sheer and panic. i've been doing it for enough years, it's like, no big deal. it could be blowing up in front of you and feel the heat but i ain't running. >> reporter: across the sweltering west for thousands summer has turned into a nightmare of scorching earth. just take a look at the map. more acres burned this time this year more than anytime in the decade, more than 7 million so far. and it comes in the middle of a massive drought coating 61% of

the nation. made worse that july and in the west was the hottest since 1936. >> when we see long-term drought, very large fires are a problem and continue to be some precipitation returns to the areas. >> reporter: fires aren't just burning up the west. even alabama and arkansas has fought fires this year. so much fire and heat and drought has brought with it unusual consequences. just today, an 11-mile spread of the mississippi river closed because of low water levels. >> dear father, we ask your blessing. >> reporter: in texas, they're now praying for rain. and in missouri, deer have fallen victim to a rare illness brought on by drinking dry riverbeds. even firefighters on the fire line told us they can feel the difference this summer. how bad is this summer for you guys? >> it's quite bad. is this quite severe. >> reporter: no side effect of

so much drought is more dramatic than the fires which ravaged colorado last month and are tearing through residential areas of idaho state, washington state and other areas. zachary pritchard pushed the envelope and stayed too long. his arm actually caught fire while he was riding an atv through flames to evacuate. >> it was like i was in a black box and i just drove through it, and i couldn't breathe. and there was fire everywhere, as turned around, on all sides of you. >> reporter: the firefighting effort doesn't actually involve fighting flames. it's clearing away brush like this. they're cutting the lines so when the fire comes through here and hopefully stops it doesn't reach those homes right over here. most aren't. myrna and gary holmes had to evacuate and they're not afraid

to admit they're scared. >> well, that is our only home, yeah, we're scared, although we know the firefighters are doing the best job. they're just working themselves to death up there. >> reporter: others are learning how to breathe in a town polluted by thick smoke. >> with the smith smoke, it's terrible. even though i'm not in quite as much smoke as some of the other residents, i am starting to feel loss of energy, you know, as my wife has throat problems every morning. >> reporter: sutterville, idaho has become an eerie place. nearly every one of the town's 350 residents are gone. but for some reason cindy christianson who runs heatherville tavern is still around and still smilinging. so the town's evacuated?

>> it is. >> reporter: are you going to leave? >> no. >> reporter: for the fire tonight, a change in weather can't come soon enough to dampen up a brutal year. as part as the firefighters work, they can only play the hand mother nature deals them. so this year, it's hot. >> we hopefully get reupped, in charlotte or somewhere else. >> reporter: i'm neal karlinsky for "nightline," in heatherville, idaho. just ahead, we're going to turn to another story. to expose the names of abusers. why one is fighting for justice now caused an onslaught of controversy. all batteries are the same...k consider this: when the unexpected happens, there's one brand of battery more emergency workers trust in their maglites:

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we turn now to the story of a 17-year-old girl with a passionate controversy that's playing out online and in court. after two teenage boys who abused her at a party were given a plea deal she saw as too lenient, she put justice in her own hands putting herself in legal hot water and causing a storm across the globe here's juju chang tonight, viral & vicious. >> reporter: for 17-year-old savannah dietrich. it all started with underage drinking with friends. people were taking shots from the bottle. >> yeah, straight from the bottle. >> reporter: savannah said she blacked out and woke to find her clothes disheveled and the

feeling that something wasn't right. >> i had my dress back on, but my bra was all shifted weird and my underwear was off. i knew i wasn't doing anything. those boys weren't doing anything, in my mind, nothing ever happened. >> reporter: but now, she's at the center of a legal firestorm, fighting a law that she can't expose the young men even though they pleaded guilty to sexually abusing her. >> it should be my god-given right to find out what happened to me. >> reporter: it started months after the incident when friends told her rumors that two boys had taken photos of her and allegedly shared them. >> people tell me that it was me on the kitchen floor passed out. my eyes are closed. i'm exposed. well, first thing, yeah, i can tell you, i tried for hours. >> reporter: she said, she confronted the boys to get the truth, to avenge her reputation. they said that i took off my clothes. they took one pictures.

>> reporter: do you believe that? >> no. >> reporter: so their argument would be you consented? >> i'm really insecure about my body a lot. and there's no way possible i would have taken off my clothes and let them see -- take a picture. >> reporter: savannah says when she couldn't get the truth, she got the police involved. >> i actually got them a lot of the evidence. i got them most of the witnesses. >> reporter: the boys pled guilty to felony sexual abuse and misdemeanor voyeurism. because they're juveniles, the court files were confidential. their charges and their punishment stayed secret. the court reminded everyone not to talk about the case. but savannah was furious because she thought the boys weren't paying for their crime. >> i was upset. i felt like they got less than the minimal punishment. >> reporter: so you were mad? >> i was -- yeah, i knew they were manipulating the system. >> reporter: so savannah did

what teenagers do, she poured her heart out son social media. she tweeted to her 200 followers knowing she was risking jail time. there you go, lock me up, she tweeted. >> i said the boys' names and said they sexually assaulteded me. >> reporter: so you were facing 180 days in jail. how did that strike you? >> do they feel like this is justice? then i really don't know what justice is. it's supposed to protect the victims not prostitute them. >> nothing but shock on our side. >> reporter: david mejia is one of the boy's attorneys. >> it was to have her come to court, remove my clients's name, remove the words from the internet and i was hoping for a remorseful apology. >> i'm not going to apology for

someone who attacked me. >> reporter: instead, press coverage went viral trending in the blogosphere. change.org said it was one the fastest movements they've ever seen, 50,000 signatures in one day. the boys' lawyers quickly withdrew the action. >> she has gotten contacts, calls letters, has been threatened and it has absolutely destroyed whatever normal life he had. >> their reputations are at this point ruined, fairly or unfairly. i think it's safe to say savannah has become a bit of a first amendment hero. >> reporter: jason riley covers the courts for the louisville courier-journal. >> a lot of people are misrepresenting that. they're calling the boys rainists. they were not found guilty of rape, but at the they are

branded as rainists. >> reporter: riley's newspaper is now in a legal fight to unseal those records. >> we don't know what the deal is for the boys. savannah's not allowed to say, her family's not allowed to say so we don't know how fair it is really at this point. >> reporter: the prosecutor's office failed to comment on the case and said they're in fafrl of lifting the shroud when appropriate. savannah's lawyers say what's at stake is bigger than their client. >> so many children do not come forward and say what people do to them. >> reporter: but the boys' side of the story hasn't come out. >> now their reputation isn't ruined. >> i think the boys ruined their own reputation. they took pictures. they disseminated it. they told people what about they had done. so to come back and blame her for ruining the reputation is inzbikable. >> reporter: it's not an even he said, she shed.

>> that's a problem because if ever a case called out for transparency, this one does. >> all i wanted was the truth. all i wanted from the beginning is the truth. i don't want my reputation to be ruined pap i don't want to be thrown under the bus to protect their reputation. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm juju chang in louisville, kentucky. >> tomorrow, a hearing is held to open up the discussion on savannah's case. coming up, michelle obama and more than 50 of the kid chefs. reinvent the suv. to go further, and with an innovative foot-activated rear lift gate... technology that can recognize your voice, and the best highway fuel efficiency in its class, up to 33 mpg. because we wanted to reinvent the suv, we had to invent... this.

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it can't be easy to sell the preteen set on zucchini, if anybody can do it, it's first lady michelle obama. today, she hosted making healthy child's play. >> reporter: a state dinner they call it and first lady michelle obama was front and center. >> is this not cool? this is just so very cool. >> reporter: what was so very cool? ♪ >> reporter: the trappings, sure. the beautiful comprooentss and the place cards, but what was really interesting were the

guests. not celebrities nor statesmen nor big money donors but kids. though they made their own big entrances in fancy threads. >> i think this is one of the best events that we've ever had here. our very first ever kids' state dinner. >> reporter: so how did these 54 children 8 to 12 years old get invited here today? they won the healthy lunchtime challenge. part of the first lady's "let's move" campaign. >> you came up with dinners that were packed with nutritious, delicious ingredients. dishes that are good for you, but more importantly, they taste good, too. >> reporter: to get a golden ticket, madeline sappelle of virginia concocted up this chowder. >> i wanted some more color in it. i thought of some vegetables. i came up with carrots and peas and corn and some potatoes.

>> reporter: in sugarland, texas, michael lakin, too, slaved over the stove. >> i'm going to be prepping a salad i like to call secret service supersalad. >> reporter: 1200 recipes can submitted to the conte nest website ep curious. >> they were downright tasty. >> reporter: then the final arbiter, sam kass, the assistant chef for healthy food initiatives at the white house. he tasted 100 recipes in just a couple hours. how many some of the 100 were good? >> they were all incredible. they were created with a lot of love. they were great. >> reporter: how much of these dishes did the kids come up with as opposed to their parents? >> no, you could tell, there's a lot of kid in it. >> reporter: madeline picked. >> i remember that chowder.

it was delicious, really. 1 in 3 kids with diabetes in their lifetime if they don't really change course. >> reporter: but that really wasn't on anybody's plate as the junior chefs arrive at the white house. >> michael lakind created the super secret service super salad. michael where are you? did you finally meet one of the agents? okay. yeah. >> reporter: and then? >> the president of the united states. >> usually, i get invited to the state dinner, but this time, i just had to crash. >> reporter: as the lucky winners left, their stomachs were full but they were walking on air. >> i really wanted to do this. >> the highlight for me was when i shook hands with the president. >> reporter: at the very east, the essays "what i did over my summer vacation" will be tough to beat. this is j