Stifled by an increase in relative humidity, the Pony Fire has slowed to the point where firefighting crews and other resources have been released to battle other, more critical wildfires around the West.

On Friday morning, officials announced that the Pony Fire was 90 percent contained. Full containment was expected to occur by 6 Friday evening.

"Right now the fire crews are trying to tie in areas that weren’t connected (with the fireline) and are hitting the hot spots," said Joe Colwell, a fire information officer.

Colwell attributed the large gain in containment to improvements in the weather over the last several days and strong firefighting efforts on Saturday and Sunday.

"We have had relatively cooler temperatures, higher humidity and a lack of bad lightning storms over the past couple of days," Colwell said. "On Saturday and Sunday firefighters really pounded the head of the fire with retardant and water drops in order to slow down the fire’s growth," he added.

The Pony Fire was ignited by a lightning strike on a remote piece of Ute Mountain Ute land on Aug. 2, and quickly grew into a Type I fire as the result of extremely dry piñon, juniper and oak fuels and troublesome topography.

Steep, narrow terrain made firefighting efforts on the ground extremely difficult — leaving the majority of the attack to be done from the air.

On Aug. 4, the Pony Fire crept onto Wetherill Mesa in Mesa Verde National Park, forcing the park to re-close for the second time in a month.

The park, which lost 19,709 acres of land in the Bircher Fire, had an additional 1,352 acres scorched by the Pony Fire.

The Pony Fire has burned approximately 5,240 acres of land in all.

In addition to burning several thousand trees and killing wildlife, the Pony Fire also claimed four national-0park structures including a kiosk and a concession stand on Wetherill Mesa.

Despite the wreckage, Mesa Verde National Park officials plan to have the park re-opened on Monday.

Admission will be free for two weeks following the re-opening and ranger-guided tours to Cliff Palace and Balcony House, which were not affected by the fire, will be offered on a regular basis for $1.75 per person.

"There will be some safety issues that need to be taken care of before the park re-opens," said Colwell. "Crews are working to stabilize the banks, clean up around structures and re-stripe the roads."

The information officer said that on a recent tour of Mesa Verde he saw several green sprouts of grass already popping up through the gray, dusty ash.