Lightning ignited two wildland fires on the Colorado Plateau near the Grand Canyon in July 2025 that grew to become large and disruptive.
Lightning ignited two wildland fires on the Colorado Plateau near the Grand Canyon in July 2025 that grew to become large and disruptive. The blazes led to the closure of the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, the destruction of dozens of structures, and staff and visitor evacuations from Grand Canyon National Park.
The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this image of smoke spreading from the fires on July 12, 2025. The blaze closer to the Grand Canyon, the Dragon Bravo fire, ignited on July 4, 2025, and flared up on July 11 amid extreme heat and northwest winds that gusted to 40 miles (60 kilometers) per hour. The photograph above, taken from the South Rim by National Park Service staff, shows smoke rising over the North Rim on July 11, 2025.
According to the National Park Service, the fire destroyed a water treatment facility on the North Rim, which released chlorine gas and hampered firefighting efforts. Other structures lost to the fire included a visitor center, gas station, park service employee housing, and the Grand Canyon Lodge. The historic lodge, built in 1928, was the only lodging available to visitors inside the park on the North Rim.
Read more at NASA Earth Observatory
Image: NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison and Wanmei Liang, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.
