Gusts of dry air expanded the wildfire burning in the Grand Canyon National Park over the weekend, with the incident team meteorologist expressing hope Monday that rain later this week could help fight the blazes.
The Dragon Bravo Fire on Friday was considered to be at 26 percent containment, according to the federal government’s fire-tracking system. By Tuesday afternoon, the fire had grown to 71,000 acres and was considered 9 percent contained.
Officials said biomass in the pine forest and low humidity in the air around the Grand Canyon are driving the fire’s northward expansion, even as 1,000 fire response personnel deployed to the area for a full-suppression strategy.
Craig Daugherty, the operations chief for the Southwest Area Complex Incident Management Team 2, said in a briefing Monday that “dynamic fire days” witnessed over the weekend created “pretty serious fire growth.”
