The only remaining hotel for visitors to the Grand Canyon’s North Rim has reopened. The Kaibab Lodge was threatened by the massive Dragon Bravo Fire that destroyed the Grand Canyon Lodge in July.
Larry Innes is its owner and announced Thursday afternoon that his hotel had reopened.
"We are hoping to get the trailhead open. I don’t know that that’s going to happen this year but that’ll help tremendously for the rim to rim hikers. Which is a lot of people that we cater to," he said. "But yeah we’re happy to see it open. We’re glad we’re still there."
The news comes as Kaibab National Forest officials announced the reopening of a 77,000 acre swath of the forest as the fire continues to decrease in intensity.
More Arizona Wildfires News
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A group of mostly Western U.S. senators is demanding answers on why the U.S. Forest Service has fallen behind on efforts to reduce hazardous wildfire fuels. -
A group of U.S. senators say the Forest Service has fallen behind in wildfire prevention work like forest thinning which has been deemed vital to preventing billions of dollars of damage to regions in Arizona surrounded by national forests. -
Senate Democrats have asked Senate leadership to fund recovery from wildfires on federal lands. -
The Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act was introduced by Democratic California Senator Adam Schiff and Republican Utah Senator John Curtis. If passed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal officials would have one year to develop a plan to make "commercially available appropriate respiratory personal protective equipment for wildland firefighters and supporting staff in settings in which smoke exposure surpasses covered permissible exposure limits." -
Data analyzed by the advocacy group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters shows that prescribed fires and other hazardous fuel reduction efforts have fallen by nearly 40% across the West this year.
