On July 12, as hundreds of firefighters were battling the seventh-largest wildfire in Colorado history, one crew member rescued one of the smallest babies in the state.

Ash the owl was too young to fly away when he was saved from the Aspen Acres blaze, which has since surpassed 101,000 acres.

Ash is a fledgling flammulated owl, and he weighs a whopping 37 grams — or 1.6 ounces. When he arrived at the Raptor Center in Pueblo, he was taken into good hands: literally, as he fits into the palm of a hand.

The tiny youngster wasn’t injured in the fire, besides maybe some smoke inhalation, said Diana Miller, director of the Raptor Center at the Nature & Wildlife Discovery Center.

When he arrived, he was timid and exhausted.

“He’s starting to get spicy, which is a good thing,” said Autumn Waylan, a raptor rehab specialist at the Raptor Center.

Miller said Ash will be able to take his first flight in the next week or two, but will live at the center until his preliminary release date of Aug. 24, before flammulated owls start their migration to Mexico.

Flammulated owls are Colorado’s smallest species, with adults weighing about 2.6 ounces, The Gazette previously reported. They have distinctive, fluffy bodies, with a curved beak, and live in wooded areas.

“Flams” have an insect-heavy diet, so they head toward Mexico in October and return to the Centennial State around May.

Watch Ash the owl snack on mealworms: