Dragon Bravo grows into the largest fire in the US this year

The Dragon Bravo fire is raging in Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, which as of Saturday had already covered more than 40,000 hectares and is growing into the largest wildfire this year in the continental United States, authorities said.

Forecasts indicate that the fire's extent may expand further in the coming days due to the continuing dry and hot weather. According to the government's forest fire monitoring website, InciWeb, only 11 percent of the fire had been contained on Saturday.

“We are trapped in a dry, windy and abnormally hot climate because the (so-called North American) monsoon has not emerged,” said Benjamin Peterson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Flagstaff, Arizona, as quoted by the New York Times.

Peterson explained that typically, a seasonal wind shift brings moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean to the Southwest from late June through September. However, this year hasn't seen that happen – the monsoon season has been exceptionally dry so far, the third-dryest on record.

Dragon Bravo, named after the nearby Dragon rock formation, was ignited by a lightning strike on July 4. The "Bravo" was added to the name to distinguish it from an earlier fire that broke out in the same area in 2022.

Lisa Jennings, spokeswoman for the Southeast Emergency Management Team (SAIMT), which is overseeing the firefighting effort, emphasized that the Grand Canyon's topography significantly complicates firefighting. Winds further accelerated the fire's spread, carrying burning embers as far as 25 kilometers.

"The canyon itself creates the weather. It's hard to even begin to convey how complex the situation is here," Jennings concluded.

From New York Andrzej Dobrowolski (PAP)

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