Air resources brought in to help firefighters in Colorado battling Quarry Fire in Jefferson County: "huge point of celebration"
A wildfire burning in the Jefferson County foothills with dense housing nearby has grown to 341 acres and Colorado fire managers say it is still growing. It is called the Quarry Fire, and early Wednesday afternoon there were 575 homes evacuated. Five firefighters had to get medical attention, with several suffering from heat exhaustion.
The fire started after dark on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday morning there was concern that because of the severity of other fires burning in other parts of the Front Range, there might not be any air resources that could be diverted to the Quarry Fire. Things changed quickly, and by midmorning a helicopter had arrived and was providing water drops. By noon there were three planes making slurry drops and four helicopters helping out.
"The good news is that we have a large air support dropping fire retardant and for helicopters, they're dropping water on the fire as we speak. This is a huge point of celebration for us," Jefferson County Sheriff's Office spokesman Mark Techmeyer said in a mid-morning news conference.
The fire is located near the intersection of West Deer Creek Canyon Road and Grizzly Drive. And because of the need for water from aerial teams, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has closed nearby Chatfield Reservoir in Chatfield State Park to boating.
There were about 75 firefighters battling the fire on Wednesday morning, and the terrain where the fire is burning is steep and rough. There's also a concern about firefighter safety, because the burn area includes an area known for rattlesnakes.
"This is really hard territory for our firefighters. It's very steep. It's a lot of timber, a lot of scrub oak. We had scrub oak flaming up last night 30 to 50 feet at night, which says a lot; you don't normally see that in a fire like this," Techmeyer said earlier in the morning. "And also, we have a rattlesnake problem to deal with. There's even an area in there called Rattlesnake Gulch (because) they're so prevalent in the area. So we have a lot of things to be concerned about for our firefighters today."
The evacuation order affects five different subdivisions:
- Deer Creek Mesa
- Sampson
- Maxwell
- McKinney
- Murphy
Pre-evacuation orders have been called for:
- Silver Ranch
- Silver Ranch South
So far there are no reports of any damage caused to any structures in any of the mountain neighborhoods, and there have been no reports of injuries.
The American Red Cross set up a shelter for evacuees at Dakota Ridge High School. Dozens of people were there at midday on Wednesday, many with their pets.
