Wildfire burning in the Grand Canyon explodes in size

AccuWeather

The Dragon Bravo Fire, which had been about 20% contained, is now down to just 4% containment. What fueled the fire's sudden growth?

Transcript

00:00We first reported on this fire back on July 4th, the same day where we had the devastating flooding across parts of Texas.

00:05So in a way, it kind of got buried in the lead of weather stories.

00:08But overall, as you were mentioning, normally there's a trend of how these wildfires go, but this one has not stuck to that trend.

00:15And there is a big challenge that we want to hear about here as the Dragon Bravo fire has grown to over 94,000 acres.

00:21And containment went from over 20 percent, unfortunately, back down to 4 percent over a 48-hour window.

00:26Yeah, overall, the numbers have just kept getting worse and worse here over the past couple of days.

00:32So joining us now with the latest is Lisa Jennings, media lead for the Southwest Area Incident Management Team.

00:37And Lisa, we understand every fire is different.

00:40You've got some challenges with this one, with the terrain, low humidity, strong wind.

00:44So where exactly is this fire burning, and what are some of the main risks to areas?

00:49This fire is historic, not only because we're here at the Grand Canyon,

00:53but because we're facing day seven of historically dry weather,

00:58and that is causing extreme fire growth that is very challenging for our firefighters on the ground.

01:07All right, so as mentioned, we were talking about containment has dropped.

01:10So what is making this fire so hard to control?

01:15Fire activity is a combination of weather, topography, and fuels.

01:19And right now we have all three of those things working against us.

01:23As I mentioned, historically dry weather, we have really low humidity, both during the day and overnight.

01:30We're also at the Grand Canyon.

01:32So if you think about the canyon here, it essentially makes its own weather,

01:36both within the canyon and the drainages that come off of it.

01:40And that third piece is fuel, and that's very thick in this area.

01:44However, that's what our firefighters can work.

01:46And they have been putting in long hours on the ground, doing great work,

01:50trying to make containment lines to take away some of that vegetation and help contain this fire.

01:57And Lizzie, you've been talking about how the winds and the dry weather are affecting this fire.

02:00Obviously, really challenging terrain.

02:03I saw that there were over 1,000 firefighters listed as involved with the effort there.

02:08So what kind of resources do they have?

02:10Are there airdrops involved?

02:12Are there smoke jumpers involved with this effort?

02:16Or is it mainly just being attacked from the ground?

02:19We have a lot of different types of firefighters helping us on this incident,

02:24including over a dozen aircraft working around the clock to provide water support by air.

02:30We also have different units on the ground.

02:32So your typical fire engines, which can provide water, as well as heavy equipment crews that are putting in those dozer lines

02:40and trying to essentially drive the fire into areas with less vegetation where we can be more successful in that containment.

02:49All right.

02:50So in addition to trying to funnel the fires away from that vegetation you were mentioning,

02:54what are firefighters doing right now in addition to that to help slow it down?

02:59Yeah.

02:59As I mentioned, this is really challenging terrain.

03:01So every night we look at that fire growth and have to reassess our strategies.

03:07We're working on holding the fire away, first of all, from any values at risk.

03:12There are some lodges in the area, and our containment efforts on that side have been very successful in keeping it out of those structures.

03:21We are also working at, as I mentioned, moving the fire into areas with lower vegetation.

03:26Those do add to fire growth, but right now it is just so thick.

03:32Even those water drops we're providing is not really quite making it through the canopy to the ground.

03:38All right.

03:39Lisa Jennings, media lead with the Southwest Area Incident Management Team.

03:42We do appreciate your update and all that the crews there are doing to try to contain this large fire.

03:50All right.

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