As a giant Boeing Chinook helicopter scooped a bucketful of water from Chatfield Reservoir and headed to drop it over Zach Stahl’s neighborhood, he sat in the bed of his dad’s truck and held tight to his signed hockey stick. 

It is one of 20 such autographed NHL treasures the 16-year-old grabbed when his family fled their 13-acre canyon property at just before midnight Tuesday.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Quarry fire had burned over 200 acres and was at 0% containment. 

“We haven’t slept much,” Stahl said.

Nearby, a small stuffed unicorn lay on its side, another talisman saved from possible fire.

“I got my wedding dress, our children’s baby books and our dog, Dakota,” said his mom, Kelly Kasik, noting the family hung out in a nearby Safeway for hours before they realized Red Cross had set up a shelter at Dakota Ridge High School. 

Zach’s dad, Geoff, said that they watched the flames roaring into their valley from over the edge of a hill. They spoke of how the creek that runs by their house dried up this year, months earlier than it ever has. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Stahl’s home was among nearly 600 threatened by the Quarry fire — but still standing. 

“This fire is not an easy fight”

With at least three other large wildfires burning at the same time in Colorado, resources are slim. Seventy-five firefighters had to walk two miles before they even reached the Quarry fire in a ground-fight which “is not a fight you’re going to win,” Jefferson County Sheriff’s spokesperson Mark Techmeyer said. 

The sheriff’s office and firefighters got hundreds of people evacuated from the Deer Creek Mesa, Sampson, Maxwell, McKinney, and Murphy subdivisions, going door-to-door and using LookoutAlert emergency notifications. 

The Silver Ranch and Silver Ranch South subdivisions were also under pre-evacuation orders Wednesday, and there are road closures in the area.

Encouraging news came Wednesday morning when Jefferson County Sheriff’s officials got word that the aircraft they had requested was coming to fight the fire from above.

“This fire is not an easy fight,” said Techmeyer.

The steep terrain and extreme heat in the upper 90s made it too hard to rely on ground firefighters. Plus, the hilly and dry area of the southwest metro Denver area is known for rattlesnakes. In fact, one area where fires are spotting is called Rattlesnake Gulch, Techmeyer said, for a reason.

“I can’t imagine trying to fight a fire in this heat and having to worry about a rattlesnake biting you in the boot,” he added.

Chatfield Reservoir to the rescue

The State closed Chatfield Reservoir to paddle boarders and boaters so that four helicopters and two air tankers could retrieve the thousands of gallons of water it would take to douse hot spots. 

For Marcia Anker and her family, this was the third evacuation in 34 years of living in Deer Creek Mesa, but she is only more determined to stay.

“It probably makes me more serious about fire mitigation,” she said, and remarked how sad she was for the animals who live in the open space which the fire will displace. 

How did the Quarry Fire start?

The Quarry fire started as a 10-by-10 foot spot fire in open space, tagged by an alert Jefferson County Sheriff deputy at around 9 p.m. Tuesday night. That small fire grew to 100 acres in an hour, sheriff’s officials said. Techmeyer said that it’s too soon to speculate what may have caused the Quarry fire, but “any time you see a small fire at 9 p.m. in an open space you have to scratch your head a little bit.”