Tucson Region

Rain aids Graham fire battle; no immediate threat to scopes

RIGGS LAKE - The Nuttall Fire remained in check Monday as afternoon thunderstorms delivered some much-needed rain to Mount Graham. The atmosphere was relaxed enough that many firefighters spent the afternoon here playing cards and horseshoes while helicopters refilled their buckets in a lake jumping with trout. Fire officials estimated the blaze's size at 300 acres Monday morning but scaled that back to 150 acres by day's end. The fire wasn't threatening any structures and was still about six miles west of the University of Arizona's telescope complex. About 140 firefighters were working on the lightning-caused fire, which was first reported Saturday at 6:15 p.m. in the Pinaleno Mountains, 75 miles northeast of Tucson. Scientists and staffers at the Mount Graham International Observatory were poised to take action if the Nuttall Fire makes a run, but otherwise they were conducting "business as usual," the observatory's director said. "We're battening down the hatches, preparing for emergency evacuations, taking all the precautions any prudent person would take, but this is not an urgent, imminent situation right now," said Buddy Powell, associate director the UA's Steward Observatory. About 40 people were working atop the mountain. Staff members made sure that the observatory's water tanks were full and already had set up sprinklers that would water down the forest surrounding the observatory's perimeter if necessary, Powell said. Officials said the fire had seated itself in a position that would make it tough for the wind and topography to conspire and push the flames upslope. The fire was burning in heavy brush and mixed conifer forests between 7,500 and 8,000 feet elevation. Access to the blaze continued to be a challenge, forcing firefighters to take helicopters to the fire lines and camp there overnight. Several dozen firefighters staged at Riggs Lake campground Monday, awaiting an assignment or the call for an initial attack on a new lightning-sparked blaze. As massive helicopters swooped down to dip buckets in the artificial lake, a crew from the Northwest Fire/Rescue District stood in a grassy meadow to watch and take photos. The crew members also played poker on a picnic table and used a Pulaski - a hand tool that combines an ax with a hoe - to bang in a metal pole so they could start a game of horseshoes. A Sikorsky S-61 repeatedly descended to fill its bucket with nearly 1,000 gallons of water, the turbulence from its rotors causing concentric circles of waves to expand across the lake. The display was even more impressive when a Skycrane dipped its hose into the water like a mosquito inserting its proboscis. The rotor's downdraft churned up whitecaps, swayed trees nearby and coated observers on the shoreline with mist. By noon, puffy white cumulonimbus clouds began to mushroom into the atmosphere like giant florets of cauliflower. Soon, the undersides were black, and claps of thunder boomed across the mountaintop for the remainder of the afternoon. The thunderstorms threatened to ignite new blazes or fan the flames of the existing fire with violent gusts of wind. But it rained over much of the Pinalenos and Safford, though officials said it was unclear how much precipitation fell over the fire. A drying trend was expected over the next few days, the National Weather Service said. "We've been real fortunate that we've had this weather each day," Dean McAlister, fire management officer for the Coronado National Forest, said as he surveyed the fire from a rock outcropping near Clark Peak. About 1,000 feet below McAlister and two miles to the north, the Nuttall Fire filled its namesake canyon with milky white smoke. Occasionally, trees in the mixed-conifer forest torched and sent up darker columns. "This is the time of day when the fire might really pick up and run," McAlister said around 2 p.m., "but it hasn't done that."