The devastating wildfire raging in Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park has spread to more than 126,000 acres, making it the largest active blaze in the country.
The Dragon Bravo fire has been burning for a month following a lightning strike on the canyon’s North Rim on July 4.
Record-low humidity has hampered efforts to contain the fire, which has spread to 126,445 acres and is only 13 percent contained as of Tuesday, according to InciWeb, the government’s website that tracks wildfires.
Towns near the blaze are hosting emergency community meetings this week as the fire threatens to endanger life, impact business supply chains and affect the tourism economy. Millions of visitors flock to the natural wonder of the world every year.
The mayor of the town of Fredonia declared a local emergency Monday.
Mayor Don Johnson called for a “drastic and meaningful change in land use and forest management policy” to prevent future catastrophic fires in the Kaibab National Forest.
The fire also destroyed the historic lodge at Grand Canyon National Park as extreme heat and strong winds continue to fuel the blaze.
“Humidity will begin to rise, but fire weather remains near critical,” the daily government update on the fire warned Tuesday.
Smoke has been affecting the air quality in the nearby towns for the last two weeks and gusts of up to 30mph are forecast this week.
The town of Page is due to hold an emergency meeting on the issue Wednesday.
“We have had this persistent southwest wind that has carried smoke into the Page area, so they have been flirting with unhealthy smoke impacts,” Robert Rickey, a Weather Service wildfire incident meteorologist, told The New York Times.
Winds could ease over the weekend, but there is only a 10 percent chance of rain, which is not expected to be significant.
“This fire behavior we’re seeing is unprecedented,” Lisa Jennings, a spokeswoman for the Southwest Area Incident Management Team, told the Times Saturday. “We have had consistently gusty winds with this dry spell for the past eight days. There’s lots of fuel to burn through.”
Elsewhere, wildfire smoke continues to choke millions of residents across the Upper Great Lakes region, as massive blazes burned in Canada and throughout the western U.S.
