A. SAGE-MORRIS / AFP
The smoke from the Dragon Bravo fire on the north shore of the Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, on July 30, 2025.
United States-It is already the biggest fire of the year in the United States, in one of the most iconic places in the country. The Grand Canyon, among the most famous American Western Natural Parks in the world, has been prey for an out of control, the “Dragon Bravo Fire” for a month, which has already ravaged nearly 50,000 hectares. In the midst of a tourist season, he forced the authorities to close his north shore, which usually concentrates 10 % of visits.
It all started on July 4, the day of the American national holiday. That day, lightning sparked the first fires, which are now fought day and night, on earth and in the air, by more than a thousand firefighters.
“Despite a humidity at a very low rate of 4 %, (firefighters) managed to control the growth of the fire”said on Monday, August 4, in a press release the command of the fire soldiers of the state of Arizona.
According to the government site Inciweb, which monitors fires across the country, the “Dragon Bravo Fire”, described as “Mega fire”is only contained 13 % and may extend in the coming days due to very dry and very hot weather in Arizona.
A legendary hotel in the smoke park
The Grand Canyon park, visited each year by 4.5 million American and foreign tourists, had closed its north bank in mid-July (North Rim) for the rest of the season, that is to say until October 15. The southern shore (South Rim) of the Grand Canyon, preferred by 90 % of visitors, remains, still accessible.
The park authorities, where an impressive smoke column overlooks the huge glowing throat dug by the Colorado river, had been evacuated in July for a half million tourists and employees for a month.
The “Dragon Bravo Fire” has yet made any victim but destroyed according to the authorities “Between 50 and 80 infrastructure” On the north shore, including the only hotel in the area, Grand Canyon Lodge, a legendary building from the 1930s with a breathtaking view of the huge natural site. The visitors’ reception center on the north shore also went up in smoke.
On the entire July, a rainfall in the park measured about 2.5 cm of rain, which was largely fallen at the beginning of the month. It is half as much as normal at that time of the year.
Despite all this little encouraging data to see a possible epilogue arrive at this gigantic fire, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Flagstaff, Arizona, wants to tend towards optimism. “Until now, the monsoon has been present only intermittently”indicates Benjamin Peterson to the New York Times. “It could be delayed, and we could catch up with it. The longer term models do not really confirm it, but it is enough for one or two weeks very rainy to reverse the trend ”he wants to believe.
Fire management is this year a subject that is all the more sensitive in the American West as President Donald Trump has imposed important budget cuts and layoffs on the agency responsible for forests, the agency in charge of oceanic and atmospheric observation (NOAA) and FEMA, the Federal Catastrophe Management Agency.