UPDATE | Grand Canyon Wildfire Claims America's Best Front Porch

Editor's note: This updates with latest information on the Dragon Bravo fire.

It had America’s best front porch, an open-air patio with stunning views across, and down into, the Grand Canyon. 

Its stone skeleton remains following the cataclysmic destruction of the historic Grand Canyon Lodge from the Dragon Bravo fire that surprised firefighters with a searing run across the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park late Saturday into Sunday.

Nine decades ago, the original Grand Canyon Lodge, a four-year-old artwork of stone and wood designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, one of the architectural titans of the first half of the 20th century, also burned down. That fire reportedly started in the kitchen around 4 a.m. while a chef was working on breakfast for lodge employees.

This conflagration was caused by a wildfire sparked by lightning on July 4 and which was being managed, not directly attacked, for “resource objectives” in an area of the rim referred to as “the Basin.”

Firefighters began to lose control of the Dragon Bravo fire, which had spread across 5,000 acres of mixed conifer, aspen, and ponderosa pine forest by Sunday morning, on Friday.

“On July 11th the Dragon Bravo Fire was driven by strong northwest wind gusts, uncommon to the area, and jumped multiple containment features,” fire bosses reported. It was then that the decision was made to attack and try to suppress the fire.

No one was injured by the wildfire. Ironically, the 40,000-acre White Sage fire burning on U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands a bit to the north of the Dragon Bravo fire had prompted evacuation of visitors from park lands on the North Rim last Thursday.

A Park Service employee on the North Rim told the National Parks Traveler that on Friday morning “the park briefing said everything was going well with the Dragon Bravo fire, with a bigger concern the White Sage fire well to the north, cutting off one of two routes out of the park. Maybe about 3 p.m. I looked out from where I was and saw a wall of smoke and fire. It looked really bad and was closer than the normal five miles away fire that had burned for a whole week under control. Too close for comfort.”

Around 3:30 p.m. the fire jumped the fire lines and headed towards the park developments on the North Rim,” added the employee, who asked not to be identified talking to media. “We had about an hour to gather our things and load up our cars.”

About 200 concessions workers also escaped the North Rim on Friday, the employee said, as lodging concessionaire Aramark sent two buses from its Page, Arizona, operations to pick them up.

“Two rangers hiked from the North Rim to Phantom ranch to avoid the fire and clear visitors from the trail. They were flown out of the canyon Saturday by helicopter,” the Park Service employee said. “So far, no loss of lives. An amazing accomplishment.”

By Saturday evening sustained 20 mph winds out of the northwest that gusted at times 40 mph spawned “extreme and volatile fire behavior,” the National Park Service said, blew up the wildfire by 500 acres and pushed it to the lip of the rim and into the lodge and historic log cabins surrounding it.

Along with the structures lost to the flames Park Service vehicles also were destroyed, according to the employee. As of Monday morning the fire had spread to more than 5,700 acres. While there were almost 300 firefighters battling the flames, they had yet to achieve any containment of the blaze.

"More resources are being directed toward the Dragon Bravo Fire, and heavy aerial resource use will continue as part of an aggressive full suppression strategy. Closures and evacuations remain in place," the morning briefing said.

Additionally, a hazmat team had arrived to address the chlorine leak at the North Rim's water treatment facility, which also burned.

Due to the smoke accumulation in the inner canyon resulting from Dragon Bravo Fire, and impaired emergency response access in the smoke-filled canyon, the following areas are closed to all visitor use:

• North Kaibab Trail and South Kaibab Trail
• Bright Angel Trail below Havasupai Garden. River exchanges are allowed to pass through this area at their discretion.
• Phantom Ranch and Bright Angel Campground. River runners are not to stop at Boat Beach, but may continue to Pipe Creek beach for exchanges.
• River Trail between Pipe Creek and the South Kaibab
• Tonto East between Havasupai Garden and Tip Off
• All backcountry routes and canyoneering routes stemming from the North or South Kaibab, or the Bright Angel Trail.

The North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park will remain closed for the duration of the 2025 season.

Why the Park Service did not aggressively combat the flames when the fire was first ignited is the question Arizona officials want answered.

“An incident of this magnitude demands intense oversight and scrutiny into the federal government’s emergency response. They must first take aggressive action to end the wildfire and prevent further damage,” said Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs. “But Arizonans deserve answers for how this fire was allowed to decimate the Grand Canyon National Park.

“While the flame was started with a lightning strike, the federal government chose to manage that fire as a controlled burn during the driest, hottest part of the Arizona summer,” Hobbs continued in a post on X. “I am calling on the federal government for a comprehensive and independent investigation into the management of the fire and a report detailing the decisions that led to this devastating outcome.”

U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, agreed.

“Because of the Dragon Bravo Fire, Arizona lost more than a historic lodge, it lost a piece of our state history,” he posted on X. “As Governor Hobbs has rightly called for, there must be a comprehensive, independent investigation into the handling of fire and the rationale for treating it as a controlled burn—especially as Arizona experiences the driest, hardest part of summer.”

According to National Park Service manuals, the extent of the investigation that will be led into the fire and loss of infrastructure will be determined by Grand Canyon Superintendent Ed Keable and regional and national officials.

"It is the clear responsibility of the park superintendent to be accountable for a park wildland fire review. They can call for a wildland fire review, must insure timely completion, and are ultimately responsible to implement recommended actions," reads a section in the Wildland Fire Management manual.

But the manual also states that wildfires that involve "significant adverse media or political interest, multi-regional resource response, or a substantial loss of equipment or property" will be be reviewed by the Park Service's Division of Fire and Aviation chief or their designated
representative.

Grand Canyon officials have not responded to a request for comment on the disaster.