This week, the head of the National Park Service told Congress that mismanagement likely allowed last year’s Dragon Bravo Fire to burn out of control on the Grand Canyon’s North Rim.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that crews had let the fire burn to diminish fuels.
“Sometimes we have land managers that feel like they have been underfunded in terms of fuel load management and so they’ll let a fire burn in a national park or in a wildlife refuge, they’ll let it burn thinking like, ‘oh I can manage some of my fuel load,'" Burgum said.
Early statements said the fire was being allowed to burn for quote “resource objectives.” After almost 10 days, crews said they started working to put out the fire.
Burgum said the management decisions led to significant losses.
"In retrospect an approach of suppression versus containment might have saved hundreds of millions of dollars of historic properties," Burgum said.
It took about three months before the fire was contained.
As a result, it burned more than 145,000 acres and decimated over a hundred structures, including the historic Grand Canyon Lodge.
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