Improved Weather Conditions Aid Efforts to Control Dragon Bravo Fire
Favorable weather has provided a much-needed boost to firefighting efforts against the expansive Dragon Bravo Fire, which has burned 144,000 acres. Firefighters have achieved 44% containment, a significant step forward given the challenging conditions they have faced.
For nearly a month, crews battled intense heat and dry conditions around the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park and the Kaibab National Forest. However, as Matthew Garcia from the complex incident management team reports, the weather is beginning to turn in their favor.
“Low wind, high humidity, lower temperatures and chances of precipitation,” Garcia explains, “That’ll help moderate fire behavior overnight and allow crews to work the fire.”
Firefighters have been employing drones to detect hotspots on the fire’s southwestern edge. These hotspots are then targeted by aircraft, enabling ground crews to adopt a more aggressive approach in their firefighting tactics.
Garcia notes the progress being made: “It seems like we’re starting to get more of a foothold, we’re starting to turn a corner. We’re definitely increasing containment,” he says. “And I think we’re still continuing to go into that direction of increased containment.”
Efforts are underway to establish new fire lines on the west to safeguard the remote north rim viewpoint of Point Sublime. Meanwhile, aircraft are actively working to prevent the fire from advancing back up the canyon on the southeast side, where it recently approached within a mile of the Colorado River.
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