Smoke rises from the mesas of Mesa Verde National Park and the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation on Saturday.

The Pony Fire ballooned from 450 to approximately 5,000 acres over the weekend, consuming four structures, threatening others and forcing Mesa Verde National Park to remain closed.

However, on Monday it grew little, according to fire information officer Don Ferguson. No estimate on acreage was available, but he said a little rain had slowed its advance and it was moving at about 4 mph.

No park structures were imminently threatened, he said.

Fire officials reported that the wind-fed blaze entered Mesa Verde National Park on Friday during its rampage that day across more than 3,000 acres of piñon, juniper and oak brush on Ute Mountain Ute and national-park land.

Fire crews are still working to clean up wreckage from the Bircher Fire, which toasted more than 19,000 acres within Mesa Verde, dislocated guardrails and left roads in a shambles less than three weeks ago.

Upon entering the park at Wetherill Mesa, the Pony Fire scorched four structures, including a concession stand and kiosk, and forced employees and visitors to evacuate the park for the second time in a month.

The blaze also damaged shelters guarding prehistoric pit houses on Wetherill Mesa, melting the plastic bubbles in the roofs that let light in. However, the ruins themselves reportedly were undamaged, and the holes were closed to protect them from rain.

On Monday, Incident Command Spokesperson Sheila McLean announced that the fire, which began in Pony Canyon as the result of a lightning strike on Aug. 2, was less than 5 percent contained.

"The difference between this fire and the Bircher Fire is that this one is on much more rugged terrain," said McLean.

Because of the harsh, uneven topography and remote location of the fire, the management team has to rely a lot more on aircraft than ground crews, McLean said.

The spokesperson added that shifting, unpredictable winds have made it difficult for crews to establish any kind of a definite firefighting strategy.

"If the winds stay consistent, then you can predict where the fire is going to go — but with shifting winds it becomes more difficult — and dangerous," said McLean.

Bob Fitzgerald HOPI DANCERS perform the ceremonial "Clown Dance" Sunday at the Cortez Cultural Center. The dance is one of those done to ask for rain. The Hopis were unable to perform at Mesa Verde National Park as planned this weekend because of the Pony Fire. They did a performance at the Anasazi Heritage Center instead.

Continued hot, dry weather with the possibility of afternoon thunderstorms and erratic winds could spread the fire even further, officials reported. Dry lightning could also create more wildfires.

A Type I Incident Command Team, the largest and most experienced of all management teams, took over coordination of the firefighting efforts around midnight on Sunday.

The Type I team replaces a regional Type II team that had been managing the fire since Friday.

The new team is being led by incident commander Mike Lohrey, who also managed the Type I team for the Bircher Fire.

McLean said that as of Monday 360 personnel have been assigned to the Pony Fire including 12 20-person crews, nine engines, five helicopters and three airtankers.

McLean added that because such a large portion of the fire is burning on Ute Mountain Ute Reservation land — which contains numerous archeological treasures — archaeologists have been assigned to travel with fire crews to help identify possible sites.

"Right now we are working on getting the camp set up and the crews organized. Several of the crews will be stationed up at the Morefield Campground (on top of Mesa Verde)," said McLean.

Officials reported that crews on top of Mesa Verde are working to protect employee housing, a research center containing some 2 million artifacts, park headquarters and the Mesa Verde Museum.

For the past two days, crews reportedly have been sprinkling water on park employees’ residences and historic frame buildings on Chapin Mesa.

Jay Lamberth, a member of the Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation team, said the team has been asked to stay on at Mesa Verde to help assess the damage caused by the Pony Fire once it is contained, but he was unsure whether it would.

The BAER team has been working since early last week to assess the repercussions that the Bircher Fire will have on the land, especially the potential for erosion caused by rainfall.

Mancos Times-Tribune editor Tom Vaughan and Cortez Journal writer Janelle Holden contributed to this article.