The evacuation order spread throughout the Northern Territory. Robin Bies, an employee at the Kaibab Lodge, about fifteen miles north, took the two tourists and their grandchildren to the South Rim, a four-hour drive. About 2 AMshe looked back at the canyon and saw the red glow of Dragon Bravo. “It was just surreal,” she told me. The fire ultimately burned one hundred and forty-five thousand acres in three months, becoming America's largest wildfire of 2025. Bies often wondered why firefighters didn't just put it out in the first place.
A few weeks after Dragon Bravo was completely extinguished, I traveled to the North Rim in hopes of understanding its consequences. Driving through the Kaibab National Forest and Grand Canyon National Park, I covered more than fifty miles of fire scars. Some roads have only recently opened. The last few miles of Arizona State Route 67 leading to the Grand Canyon Lodge were still blocked; the house burned to the ground, and dozens of other houses and buildings disappeared.
Once Dragon Bravo broke through containment lines, firefighters tried every means available to stop its spread: airplanes, fire trucks, bulldozers, hand crews, live rounds, drones. These battles were written into the landscape. I could see that in some places the firemen had stopped the Bravo Dragon's progress on the road. Herds of bison grazed on the grass that sprouted on the blackened earth. In other places I saw the fire cross the road and climb the steep slope. Some evergreen trees were so crisp that they resembled matchsticks.
I stayed overnight at the Kaibab Lodge, which served as a federal government command post after the evacuation of the North Rim. Bice helped provide food and shelter to hundreds of firefighters living in the wild. “They became like family,” she told me. She went into town weekly to buy cigarettes. The sign still hung above the reception desk: “Welcome Dragon Slayers.”
I stood with one of Bies' colleagues, Mark Harvey, the lodge's handyman, in front of the huge stone fireplace. Snow was falling outside; From time to time he threw a dried aspen log into the fire. How did their house survive? “Just luck,” Harvey said. “The wind has changed direction.” He showed me a video of orange flames pulsating against the night sky. Only in mid-August did rain help firefighters corral Dragon Bravo, and the fire was completely contained only at the end of September. However, Harvey did not consider the fire a disaster. “It's just the cycle of the forest,” he said. “We need to burn all the old stuff.” He was looking forward to spring, when he predicted that the grouse would return and the morels would begin to multiply.
Many of my sources feared that Dragon Bravo would bring scrutiny to the very idea of controlled wildfires. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs called for a formal investigation, arguing that “Arizona residents deserve answers to how this fire managed to destroy Grand Canyon National Park.” Other politicians have expressed skepticism that any wildfires should be allowed to burn. Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation policy program that has had a strong influence on the Trump administration, has criticized the Forest Service for using “unplanned fires” to manage vegetation, instead advocating timber harvesting. Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte demanded that the Forest Service “fully commit to an aggressive initial and expanded attack strategy.” This year, Trump's nominee to head the Forest Service said in an annual letter that “it is critical that we put out fires as quickly as possible.”
The response comes at a crucial moment. Historically, thousands of firefighters have worked for various Department of the Interior agencies: the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service. The goals of these organizations are more subtle than firefighting; they also value conservation and protection of wildlife. But as early as January 2026, the Trump administration plans to consolidate those firefighters under a new agency, Wildland Fire Service, which, according to a September report, will “reflect the growing risk to people, property and infrastructure.” press release. (The Forest Service is part of the Department of Agriculture, so its eleven thousand firefighters will remain separate for now.) The Interior Department has declined to detail the new agency's priorities.
