A raging wildfire has taken out dozens of buildings along the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, including a water treatment facility and a historic lodge, park officials said Sunday.
A lighting strike within Grand Canyon National Park sparked the Dragon Bravo Fire on July 4, according to the fire reporting agency InciWeb. While it was first managed with a “confine and contain strategy” designed to protect structures, facilities and infrastructure, conditions changed rapidly on Friday, the agency said.
Uncommonly strong northwest wind gusts, combined with the fire’s propensity to grow overnight when aerial firefighting efforts were unavailable, stoked flames already enabled by “hot temperatures, low relative humidity, and continued strong wind gusts,” Inciweb said.
On Sunday it stood at 5,000 acres, and between 50 and 80 structures had been lost, including “numerous” historic cabins, Grand Canyon National Park said in an update.
On Saturday, the North Rim water treatment plant went up in flames, releasing chlorine gas. Since that’s heavier than air, it settles into lower elevations, the park said. While nearby communities weren’t affected, hikers were evacuated from the inner canyon, and some areas were closed until further notice. Firefighters were pulled from the North Rim, and Colorado River rafters were told to bypass Phantom Ranch. North Kaibab Trail, Phantom Ranch, and the South Kaibab Trail in the inner canyon were all closed to hikers pending assessment.
Michael Quinn/National Park Service via AP
This undated photo provided by the National Park Service shows Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim of Grand Canyon, Ariz. (Michael Quinn/National Park Service via AP)
While most of the millions of annual visitors to Grand Canyon National Park head to the South Rim, a fair number prefer the North Rim, with one traveler saying its remoteness and smaller number of tourists made it feel more personal and intimate.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Flagstaff resident and frequent visitor Tim Allen told The Associated Press.
All employees and guests had been evacuated on Thursday as the fire moved closer, and there were no injuries reported.
“As stewards of some our country’s most beloved national treasures, we are devastated by the loss,” Debbie Albert, a spokesperson for Aramark, the company that manages the lodge, told AP.
The most recent incarnation of the lodge had been operational since 1937, after a kitchen fire burned down the original in 1932. A highway leads straight to the lodge, the most prominent feature and among the first visitors see upon arrival. It was famous for its sloped roof, massive ponderosa beams and limestone façade, and often a visitor’s first view of the canyon was through the windows from the “Sun Room.”
With News Wire Services
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