Grand Canyon Wildfire Spreads to More Than 126,000 Acres

The nation’s largest wildfire has spread to more than 126,000 acres in Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, prompting nearby communities to declare transportation, supply and smoke emergencies.

The Dragon Bravo fire has been burning for more than a month, fueled by record-low humidity that has hampered containment efforts.

The mayor of Fredonia, Ariz., declared that his town of about 1,300 people just north of the park was facing a “significant and ongoing wildfire emergency” because of the fire. Businesses were struggling with supply chain interruptions, ranchers have been displaced and the tourism economy, dependent on more than one million annual visitors, is expected to suffer, according to the emergency declaration, which was issued on Monday.

The local economies around Fredonia, Arizona’s northernmost town, and the Kanab area in southern Utah across the state line rely on visitors to the national park and have been affected by the closures along the Grand Canyon’s North Rim.

When the Dragon Bravo jumped containment lines earlier this month, it destroyed the Grand Canyon Lodge and dozens of other structures.

“That area is often the jumping-off point for tourists to go to the North Rim, so they are more economically impacted by the closures,” said Lisa Jennings, a spokeswoman for the Southwest Area Incident Management Team, which is overseeing the firefighting operations.

On Tuesday, the Dragon Bravo fire had burned more than 126,000 acres and was 13 percent contained, according to InciWeb, a government site that tracks wildfires. Significant rain in the area was unlikely, Ms. Jennings said.

In Page, Ariz., a community meeting with fire officials is scheduled for Wednesday to address smoke conditions, which are also affecting a Navajo reservation and Lake Powell.

People in the area have been feeling the impact of the fire’s smoke for two weeks, and for the remainder of this week the forecast shows wind gusts of up to 30 miles per hour, said Robert Rickey, a Weather Service wildfire incident meteorologist.

“We have had this persistent southwest wind that has carried smoke into the Page area, so they have been flirting with unhealthy smoke impacts,” he said. This week, he added, wind gusts of up to 30 m.p.h. “will just keep blowing that smoke into the Page area.”

For Tuesday and the remainder of the week, winds gusts, 15 percent humidity and dry conditions will make for critical fire weather conditions, he said. Winds could ease over the weekend, he said.

There has been some rain, Mr. Rickey said, but not enough to have an impact on the fire.

“We had a little bit of monsoon moisture that snuck into the area,” he said. “We would be in the heat of the monsoon season, but in this case it is meager amounts. It’s like dry thunderstorms.”