\n<\/p>\n
When lightning struck on 4 July along the remote North Rim of Grand Canyon national park, sparking a small wildfire in a patch of dry forest, few predicted the terror and loss that lay ahead.<\/p>\n
Fire managers decided that conditions seemed ideal to let the blaze burn at a low intensity \u2013 a practice known as \u201ccontrol and contain\u201d that helps clear out excess fuels and decreases the chance of a more catastrophic wildfire in the future. Rains from previous weeks had left the forest floor moist and weather forecasts indicated the summer monsoon season would arrive soon.<\/p>\n
It feels like a piece of who we are has burned with itGrand Canyon park employee<\/p>\n
But a week later, the park\u2019s strategy fell apart. On 11 July, the fire burst through its containment lines and began to rapidly pick up speed \u2013 exploding tenfold in a day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fire sounded like a freight train coming towards us,\u201d says a firefighter, who was part of the National Parks Service crew battling the blaze.<\/p>\n
By 12 July, it seemed the destruction was unstoppable. Over the next 24 hours some 70 buildings would be destroyed, including the historic Grand Canyon Lodge, dozens of visitor cabins as well as park administrative offices and residences. Images of the smoldering lodge and the smoke-filled canyon filled news stories and social media feeds.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, it felt like the whole world was questioning the decision to not put the blaze out immediately. Almost two weeks after it began, the so-called Dragon Bravo fire is still only 2% contained and encompasses nearly 12,000 acres (4,856 hectares), as more than 750 firefighters have battled the blaze.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Smoke rises as the Dragon Bravo fire burns on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, as people wait to watch the sunrise at Mather Point on the canyon\u2019s South Rim in Arizona, on 15 July 2025.<\/span> Photograph: David Swanson\/Reuters<\/p>\n The park\u2019s North Rim has long been the sleepy cousin of the more bustling South Rim, bringing in just 10% of the park\u2019s annual visitors, and inspiring loyal fans. News of the tragedy has hit Grand Canyon lovers hard. The area has been shut down for the remainder of the season, and hundreds of national park and concession employees have suddenly found themselves without homes and jobs. An untold number of summer vacations to the park have been cancelled.<\/p>\n But there is also a more existential loss. A place beloved by visitors and employees for its beauty and solitude has suddenly been ripped away. And the heart of that sanctuary, the Grand Canyon Lodge \u2013 the park\u2019s Notre Dame \u2013 is in ruins.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to put into words how devastating the loss of the Grand Canyon Lodge is,\u201d wrote one longtime Grand Canyon North Rim park employee on social media. \u201cThe Lodge and North Rim weren\u2019t just buildings and trails \u2013 they were a home to us \u2026 and now it\u2019s gone. It feels like a piece of who we are has burned with it.\u201d<\/p>\n As the initial shock subsides and the reality of the loss sets in, questions are swirling about how the tragedy occurred \u2013 and how to move forward.<\/p>\n In hindsight, the decision not to tamp out the fire swiftly has drawn the most scrutiny. But the Grand Canyon fire crew member who was on scene in early July, who asked not to be identified for fear of losing his job, said it seemed like a reasonable call based on assessment at the time.<\/p>\n For the first few days after it broke out, the blaze behaved exactly as expected. But then on 11 July the humidity level suddenly plummeted. Embers began jumping containment lines in the dry air as strong winds changed direction and the fire escaped down a drainage, picking up momentum as if gasoline had been dumped on it. By the next day it had exploded from 120 acres to 1,500 acres.<\/p>\n <\/span>The Dragon Bravo Fire burns on as seen from Grandeur Point on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon on 14 July 2025.<\/span> Photograph: David Swanson\/Reuters<\/p>\n Some 500 visitors at the North Rim had already been evacuated due to another fire burning outside the park, dubbed the White Sage fire. The remaining residents were evacuated, and the park\u2019s fire crew began hosing down structures. But the team was lacking adequate equipment and manpower, the firefighter said.<\/p>\n According to the firefighter, some of the department\u2019s already limited resources had been sent to fight the White Sage fire. They were missing two fire engines and a bulldozer, and they needed more boots on the ground. Plus, aerial suppression support would not arrive until the next day.<\/p>\n By nightfall on 11 July, the fast-growing fire had surrounded the crew and they were instructed by managers to take cover in the North Rim\u2019s fire station. Soon, he said, the fire was everywhere. Nearby, another group of firefighters were trapped on a helipad, flanked by flames 100ft (30.5 metres) tall.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were trapped,\u201d recalled the firefighter. \u201cWe thought we were going to die. Propane tanks from surrounding buildings were exploding all around us. Our homes and our friend\u2019s homes were burning and there was nothing we could do.\u201d<\/p>\n The North Rim did not need to burn the way it did and put firefighters in harm\u2019s wayKen Phillips<\/p>\n Located at a cool elevation of 8,000ft on the Kaibab plateau in northern Arizona, Grand Canyon national park\u2019s North Rim is a four-hour drive from the more famous South Rim. The isolation is what makes it special for park employees and visitors, but the largely undeveloped region is also especially vulnerable to wildfire. A single paved road connects the park to Jacob Lake, a small village some 50 miles away.<\/p>\n The ponderosa pine forest ecosystem of the Kaibab plateau relies on regular low-intensity fires to stay healthy, but those fires were supressed by federal policies throughout most of the 20th century. National park managers have attempted to restore the Grand Canyon\u2019s natural forest ecosystem over the last two decades through prescribed fires, or by allowing lightning-sparked wildfires to burn.<\/p>\n The strategy went off without a hitch as recently as July 2022, when a lightning strike started a fire on the North Rim that grew to only 1,300 acres as fire crews tightly managed the boundaries of the blaze.<\/p>\n <\/span>The Grand Canyon Lodge on the park\u2019s North Rim was described as \u2018idyllic\u2019. <\/span> Photograph: Michael Quinn\/AP<\/p>\n However, other examples have been less successful. In June 2006, a lightning-sparked fire trapped several hundred visitors after strong winds pushed the flames beyond its containment lines. The only paved road out of the park was blocked by flames, but law enforcement officers led visitors to safety on a web of winding dirt roads.<\/p>\n Ken Phillips, who worked at Grand Canyon for 27 years and served as chief of emergency services, believes the decision to let the Dragon Bravo fire burn was a mistake. He also points out that lives could have been lost if visitors had not already been evacuated due to the White Sage fire.<\/p>\n \u201cThe North Rim did not need to burn the way it did and put firefighters in harm\u2019s way,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a history of escaped managed wildfires at Grand Canyon. It is very tragic that the lessons learned from those fires weren\u2019t heeded in this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to a request for comment about the handling of the fire, a spokesperson directed the Guardian to a public statement from Ed Keable, the Grand Canyon superintendent, that described the wildfire as a \u201cdevastating event\u201d.<\/p>\n In a previous statement to the Arizona Republic, Rachel Pawlitz, a park spokesperson, defended the initial handling of the fire and also contradicted what firefighters said they experienced on 11 and 12 July. \u201cWe\u2019ve lost buildings but hundreds of lives were saved due to the fact that this fire was expertly handled,\u201d she said. \u201cThe firefighters did not put themselves or others at risk when they managed the initial firefight, pushing historic wind gusts that caused the fire to jump multiple containment features and move toward facilities instead.\u201d<\/p>\n Built in 1936, the Grand Canyon Lodge sits at the tip of a peninsula jutting out into the canyon allowing unmatched views of the natural wonder. Visitor cabins, perched on the rim nearby, are shaded by towering old growth pine and spruce trees.<\/p>\n Kathryn Leonard, the state historic preservation officer for the state of Arizona, calls the style of the historic buildings \u201cnational park rustic\u201d. The lodge and cabins echo the surrounding environment with rock walls made from Kaibab limestone and roofs supported by exposed ponderosa pine trusses.<\/p>\n <\/span>The view from the Grand Canyon Lodge before it burned down. <\/span> Photograph: Erik Ammerlaan\/AP<\/p>\n The Grand Canyon Lodge was uniquely \u201cidyllic\u201d and \u201copen\u201d according to Leonard. Once visitors entered the building, they could walk down a stairway where a sun room with leather couches featured a giant south-facing picture window looking out onto the Grand Canyon, some 5,000ft deep and 20 miles across. The best view in the house was on the lodge patio where visitors leaned back in Adirondack chairs and watched the sunset while sipping a beer.<\/p>\n Pictures of the lodge that circulated on social media after the fire showed that all but two Adirondack chairs had been destroyed. Everything else was ash except for the limestone walls.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe that the lodge was gone until I saw the photo,\u201d said Phillips, the former emergency services manager. \u201cThe loss of the entire North Rim developed area is like the death of a close friend.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe scale of this loss is breathtaking,\u201d agreed Leonard. \u201cHistoric resources are non-renewable and the workmanship in the cabin and lodge interiors can\u2019t be replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet Leonard is also cautiously optimistic that some elements of the building can be salvaged. \u201cThere could be a way to rebuild that does not attempt to replicate what was there but honors it.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond the charred facilities, the more lasting damage could be to the Grand Canyon\u2019s environment itself.<\/p>\n <\/span>A firefighter stands near smoldering debris amid the charred remains of a burned structure near the Grand Canyon Lodge on 13 July 2025.<\/span> Photograph: National Park Service\/Reuters<\/p>\n The forested area on the Kaibab plateau where the Dragon Bravo fire is burning encompasses the recharge zone feeding Roaring Springs, the park\u2019s sole drinking water source. Rain and snowmelt percolate down through the ground to feed the springs located several thousand feet below the canyon rim. Surface water in the area also flows off the plateau and into Bright Angel Creek.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a hydrology perspective, the fire is a disaster,\u201d said Mark Nebel, who until recently retiring, oversaw water monitoring at Grand Canyon.<\/p>\n Nebel worries that ash, sediment and chemical fire retardant may seep through the ground and into the aquifer that feeds the springs. These pollutants will also likely be swept into the Bright Angel watershed this summer as flash flooding is expected to occur as a result of the fire.<\/p>\n \u201cThe drinking water quality in the park could be impacted for many years,\u201d added Nebel.<\/p>\n As Arizona governor Katie Hobbs has called for an investigation into park service decisions and firefighters continue to battle the blaze, North Rim employees find themselves reminiscing about happier times.<\/p>\n John McFarland, a former maintenance mechanic who lived and worked on the North Rim for 30 years, recalls how he organized a Fourth of July parade at the park every summer that was followed by an \u201cepic\u201d water gun fight in front of the lodge. Many of the buildings he cared for are gone, but he is taking the loss in stride.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Grand Canyon is still there,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of the old growth trees are still there. The place will come back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When lightning struck on 4 July along the remote North Rim of Grand Canyon national park, sparking a small wildfire in a patch of dry forest, few predicted the terror and loss that lay ahead. 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\u2018Like the death of a close friend\u2019<\/h2>\n