GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. (AP) — On Tuesday, firefighting crews worked diligently to prevent a wildfire from reaching nearby cabins, a water pumping station, mule stables, and other facilities after the nearly century-old Grand Canyon Lodge was devastated by flames, according to fire officials.
In the park’s lesser-traveled North Rim, hundreds of firefighters are tackling two wildfires that have engulfed over 90 square miles (233 kilometers), surpassing twice the size of Walt Disney World in Florida.
Overnight into Tuesday, both fires expanded, but fire officials were hopeful that they had curtailed the spread of the White Sage Fire, which is the larger one. Onlookers at the park’s popular South Rim on Tuesday observed plumes of smoke billowing above the vast landscape, filling the canyon with a dense haze that settled in its depths.
“By the afternoon, it was completely socked in,” Christi Anderson said of the smoke that had filled the canyon the day before. “You couldn’t see anything, none of that. It was crazy.”
Anderson was visiting from California and considered herself lucky because she had shifted her reservation to the South Rim in the preceding days. Otherwise she would have been among those forced to evacuate.
The Dragon Bravo Fire, ignited by a lightning strike on July 4, destroyed the lodge and dozens of cabins over the weekend. That fire had been allowed to burn for days before strong winds caused it to erupt, leading to questions about the National Park Service’s decision not to aggressively attack the fire right away.
Four days into the fire, the Park Service said it was being allowed to burn to benefit the land. Then on Friday, fire officials and the Park Service warned visitors to evacuate immediately as the fire grew exponentially.
The flames were fanned by uncharacteristic nighttime gusts that topped 40 mph (65 kph).
“Normally the fire ‘lays down’ at night because of higher humidity and lower temperatures, but this thing was really wind-driven,” fire information officer Stefan La-Sky said Tuesday, adding that moisture levels within the trees and brush across the area are at record lows.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has called for an investigation into the Park Service’s handling of the fire and plans to meet with federal officials. U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego also are asking Interior Secretary Doug Burgum how the Trump administration plans to track wildfire decision-making under a recent executive order to consolidate federal firefighting forces into a single program.
The Associated Press left phone and email messages with Park Service officials seeking comment about how the fire was managed.
Over the years, managers at the Grand Canyon have successfully used fire to benefit the landscape, with the park having what some experts say is an exemplary fire management program that has tapped both prescribed fire and wildfires to improve forest health.
Andi Thode, a professor of fire ecology and management at Northern Arizona University and the lead at the Southwest Fire Science Consortium, said park managers have even re-burned some areas in multiple places over the years to create what she called “one of the best jigsaw puzzles” on public land. She noted that fire behavior decreased significantly when the Dragon Bravo Fire burned into the footprint of a previously burned area.
“So creating that heterogeneity across the landscape, using fire is a really critical tool moving forward to be able to help in the future with these wildfire events that are happening at the worst time in the worst weather conditions with the driest fuels,” Thode said.
Fire officials on Tuesday said the Dragon Bravo Fire had spread to nearly 13 square miles (34 square kilometers) while the larger White Sage Fire had charred 81 square miles (210 square kilometers).
Neither blaze had any containment, and La-Sky said it was too early for his team to offer a timeline for when the flames might be contained.
“We’re always at the mercy of Mother Nature,” he said.
Park officials have closed access to the North Rim, a more isolated area that draws only about 10% of the Grand Canyon’s millions of annual visitors.
Hikers in the area were evacuated and rafters on the Colorado River, which snakes through the canyon, were told to bypass Phantom Ranch, an outpost of cabins and dormitories. Trails to the area from the canyon’s North and South rims also were closed.
The Dragon Bravo Fire flared up Saturday night, fueled by high winds. Firefighters used aerial fire retardant drops near the lodge before they had to pull back because of a chlorine gas leak at a water treatment plant, the park service said.
Fire managers have the option of using retardant again now that the concern has been addressed. Water-dropping helicopters also were assisting the more than 360 firefighters and support personnel on the ground. Some 570 firefighters were battling the White Sage Fire as of Tuesday morning.
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Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Christopher Keller and Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this report.
