Tucson Region

Fire on Mt. Graham forces campground evacuation

By Mitch Tobin ARIZONA DAILY STAR A lightining-caused wildfire on Mount Graham quickly burned 100 acres, forced the evacuation of Riggs Lake campground and closed the paved road up the Pinaleno Mountains. The Nuttall Fire, named for nearby Nuttall Creek, also prompted Forest Service officials to order one of the nation's type-1 incident management teams, which handle the biggest and most dangerous wildfires. "There's a good potential for more lightning strikes tonight," Marylee Peterson, a Forest Service spokeswoman, said midday today. "They want to cover everything that might come along, as well as this particular fire." The fire was reported Saturday at about 6:15 p.m. It was burning roughly six miles west-northwest of the telescope complex atop Mount Graham and on the northwest side of the Pinalenos, 75 miles northeast of Tucson. "It's a really rugged, steep area," Peterson said. Seven fire crews, five of them elite "hotshots," were working to contain the fire today. Firefighters reportedly rappelled to the ground from helicopters to set up small landing spots for the aircraft. Two military C-130 air tankers were dispatched to lay down belts of flame retardant. The Nuttall Fire is burning close to where the 1996 Clark Peak fire charred 6,716 acres. That fire burned within 200 yards of two smaller telescopes that had already been built on Mount Graham. It took 1,200 firefighters and $7.9 million suppress the fire, which generated 250-foot flames. The University of Arizona is still constructing its $110 million Large Binocular Telescope, which is expected to become the most powerful observatory in the world. One of the LBT's two 28 foot-wide mirrors is already in place and may see "first light" this fall. Astronomers hope the instrument will be fully operational in 2007. For years, fire officials have feared that a major blaze in the Pinalenos could wipe out the telescopes and habitat for the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel. The forests of Southern Arizona's tallest mountain are stressed by drought, overgrown from decades of fire suppression and plagued by insect outbreaks. Riggs Lake campground was the only area immediately evacuated, but authorities closed Arizona 366, also known as the Swift Trail, at the base of the mountain. The incoming management team, led by Dan Oltrogge, took over the tail end of last year's 84,750-acre Aspen Fire in the Santa Catalinas. Oltrogge's team was expected to assume control of the blaze this evening and set up a command post at the Graham County fairgrounds in nearby Safford. The thunderstorms that have erupted in the Southwest in the past week have kept firefighters busy with officials reporting heavy initial attack. Of the 77 fires that began in the region yesterday, 74 were caused by lightning, according to the government's Southwest Coordination Center in Albuquerque. Even though this year's fire season hasn't been as severe as the previous two, fire behavior models show fuel flammability in Arizona is generally above last year's conditions for this date, and just a hair below the record levels recorded in 2002. Last Tuesday, lightning started three small fires in the Pinalenos. The blazes, known collectively as the Noon Complex, only burned 15 to 20 acres, but four firefighters were injured by a lightning strike as they worked on mop-up operations Thursday. Contact Mitch Tobin at 573-4185 or mtobin@azstarnet.com