Fire crews on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon are conducting backburns to try to keep the Dragon Bravo Fire from spreading further this morning. Weeks after it first began, the wildfire only 26% contained. It has burned more than 16,000 acres and destroyed dozens of structures — including the historic Grand Canyon Lodge.
The fire began as a small blaze ignited by a lightning strike on July 4. Then, fire managers made a critical decision: They let it burn, using a tactic known as "control and contain." But a week later, the fire was out of control — barreling past containment lines and leaving destruction in its wake.
Now, the decision not to put out the fire immediately is under intense scrutiny. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has called for an investigation and the fire continues to burn.
Longtime Arizona journalist Annette McGivney dives into that decision and its aftermath in a new piece for the Guardian.
Full conversation
LAUREN GILGER: Thank you for coming on, Annette.
ANNETTE MCGIVNEY: Yes, thanks for having me.
GILGER: So begin for us with this decision to let this fire burn initially. You spoke with a member of the fire crew who made this call, who asked not to be identified. What did he have to say about their strategy?
MCGIVNEY: Right, well, you know, the National Park Service, unlike other public land agencies, try and really retain the original environmental character of the national parks, and so part of the natural character of the Grand Canyon is fire. It's really an important part of the ecology, and most of that fire, you know, historically happened during monsoon seasons with lightning strikes.
So it's definitely been plenty of times in the past when they would let lightning continue to burn and control it. And in fact in 2022, in this same geographic region, there was the Bravo Fire which started in July with a lightning strike and they let it burn and it grew to something like 1,000 acres, but it was controlled.
And so, you know, but of course there's been plenty of other times when fires got out of control and so, they, you know, decided that at the time when on July 4 that there had been rains, there was high moisture levels in the forest floor, and they decided, you know, it looks like moisture levels are really good right now, we should let this fire continue to burn, and we'll control it. And what happened was there was just a crazy shift in the winds and also the humidity level dropped, like went off a cliff. And, and so, so anyway, you know, I would personally attribute that, you know, in part to climate change with how just all these type of unforeseen things happen with the weather that people don't anticipate.
GILGER: Yeah, conditions changed quickly there and the fire kind of went out of control. You spoke with this crew member I mentioned, and, and he talked about how the crew was overtaken. They had to take cover in the fire station there on the North Rim.
MCGIVNEY: Right, yes, you know, and this is, I've talked to one crew member and several other individuals, and I just want to clarify maybe that other people, within the firefighting, you know, department have different opinions, and I wasn't able to, you know, talk to them, but, but according to the people I talked to on July 11, when the fire got out of control and the wind shifted, it suddenly started heading east toward the residential area of the North Rim and the visitor cabins and the lodge.
And so they, you know, changed their plan and they ordered a very abrupt evacuation for park employees and those employees just had to just drop everything and, and leave without being able to prepare. And meanwhile, the park fire crew started hosing down buildings, but I also want to add that the day before, they had extra help with controlling that Dragon Bravo Fire, but they, those with the Forest Service, but the Forest Service firefighters got pulled off to go fight the White Sage Fire.
So on July 11 when things got out of control, they were, you know, significantly understaffed and so the firefighters started, you know, trying to hose down buildings and, and they realized like things were getting out of control, but by then, it was dark, no helicopter could fly in to evacuate them. The fire was too big to drive out, and so they did take shelter in the fire station, in the residential area of the park. And there were also other crew members that were stranded on a helipad and they were surrounded by flames, you know, that were several stories tall. And they definitely felt they were going to, the ones in the fire station, according to my sources, thought they were going to die for sure.
GILGER: My goodness. About a minute left here, Annette. I want to talk about what the Grand Canyon representatives have had to say as well. Other folks that you spoke with said that it was a mistake to let this fire burn initially. Now the governor's calling for an investigation. What's the response been from the Grand Canyon staff?
MCGIVNEY: Well, you know, the Grand Canyon staff has been not been able to talk to the media at all. Like there's, it's been very shut down, so only press releases coming from the Department of Interior have weighed in. But the staff feels like their practice of, you know, allowing natural fires to burn has been unfairly vilified and that maybe, you know, conditions changed and in hindsight this fire shouldn't have been allowed to burn, but, they feel like, you know, they were, at a, you know, like having trouble because not only did conditions change, but they were also lacking equipment and staff for a variety of reasons. So I guess the political finger pointing is not helpful to the crew, the fire crew, and also the Grand Canyon environmental staff at this point.
