A wildfire that tore through a historic Grand Canyon lodge and raged out of control Monday had been allowed to burn for days before erupting over the weekend, raising scrutiny over the National Park Service’s decision not to aggressively attack the fire right away.
The wildfire along the canyon’s more isolated North Rim, where most visitors don’t venture, was burning quickly with no containment, fire officials said. No injuries had been reported, but more than 70 structures were lost, including a visitors center and several cabins.
At first, the fire didn’t raise alarms after igniting from a lightning strike on July 4. Four days later, the Park Service said the fire was being allowed to burn to benefit the land and fire crews were keeping close watch.
“There are no threats to infrastructure or public safety at this time,” the park said on Facebook.
Then three days later, on Friday, fire officials and the park service sent out warnings to “evacuate immediately” as the fire grew by nearly eight times within a day to more than 1.4 square miles (3.6 square kilometers).
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs called for a federal investigation into the park service’s handling of the fire.
“The federal government chose to manage that fire as a controlled burn during the driest, hottest part of the Arizona summer,” the governor said in a social media post Sunday.
She will be meeting with leadership in the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior soon to learn more about the decisions made in managing the wildfire, Hobbs’ spokesperson Christian Slater said in an email.
Authorities first used a “confine and contain” strategy but shifted to aggressive suppression as the fire — one of two that firefighters are dealing with on the North Rim — rapidly grew because of hot temperatures, low humidity and strong wind gusts, fire officials said.
The Associated Press left phone and email messages Monday with a park service spokesperson seeking comment about how the fire was managed.
Historic lodge destroyed
The fire destroyed the Grand Canyon Lodge, the only lodging inside the park’s North Rim, along with employee housing and a wastewater treatment plant, park Superintendent Ed Keable said Sunday.
Park officials have closed access for the rest of the year to the North Rim, a less popular 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.
From the air, plumes of black smoke could be seen rising above the canyon walls and haze filled parts of the park. From the park’s South Rim, visitors took pictures on Monday of the smoke blanketing the canyon in the distance.
The fire flared up Saturday night, fueled by high winds. Firefighters managed to make progress, using aerial fire retardant drops near the lodge before they had to pull back because of a chlorine gas leak at the water treatment plant, the park service said.
Hikers also were evacuated over concern that the poisonous, heavier-than-air gas could sink downhill, into the canyon.
U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego sent a letter Monday to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum asking among other things how the administration planned to track wildfire decision-making under a recent executive order to consolidate federal firefighting forces into a single program.
Fire season in the Western U.S.
Across the West, about three dozen fires were burning uncontained and another 80 fires were being managed to clear out vegetation that has clogged the landscape, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
So far this year, nearly 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares) have burned. That’s slightly below the 10-year average, the center said Monday.
A wildfire burning in southwestern Colorado closed Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and forced evacuations nearby. It had burned about 5.7 square miles (14.8 square kilometers) as of Monday. The fire was started by lightning Thursday on the park’s south rim, a dramatic, deep gorge carved by the Gunnison River.
Fire officials said the brush and trees were very dry and there was only a minimal chance for rain in the coming days. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued a disaster declaration because of the fire and others in western Colorado.
Along the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, the Dragon Bravo Fire that destroyed the lodge and other buildings spread to nearly 9 square miles (23 square kilometers) Monday.
The White Sage Fire also grew significantly over the past day, now having charred 77 square miles (199 square kilometers) of terrain with no containment. Officials reported progress in battling the fire.
The fires came three years after two errant prescribed fires conducted by the U.S. Forest Service sparked the Hermit’s Peak-Calf Canyon Fire, which burned more than 530 square miles (1,373 square kilometers) of the Rocky Mountain foothills and destroyed hundreds of homes.
History of the Grand Canyon Lodge
The Grand Canyon Lodge, known for its huge ponderosa beams, massive limestone facade and a bronze statue of a donkey named “Brighty the Burro,” was perched on the edge of the North Rim and offered sweeping views of the canyon.
“It was like you’re looking at this movie all the time,” said Erik Ammerlann, who lived in Arizona for most of his adult life and stayed at the lodge nearly 10 years ago. “You’re really just one with nature.”
Caren Carney was staying there last week with her husband, parents and 12-year-old son when a park ranger knocked on their door Thursday and told them to evacuate.
She was heartbroken Sunday to hear that such a “magical place” had burned down. After evacuating, the family from Georgia went to the South Rim and could see the blaze across the canyon.
“I’m so glad we got to have one final look at it in the present before it was lost,” Carney said.
Aramark, the company that operated the lodge, said all employees and guests were safely evacuated.
An original lodge burned down from a kitchen fire in 1932, four years after construction was completed, according to the Grand Canyon Historical Society. The redesigned lodge using the original stonework opened in 1937.
