r/Wildfire Jul 15 '25

News (General) National Park Service's handling of wildfire that destroyed historic Grand Canyon Lodge questioned

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/grand-canyon-lodge-wildfire-burned-for-days-before-it-spread/
76 Upvotes

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u/No_Mind3009 Jul 15 '25

Do you have all the information about the fuel moisture levels, weather forecasts, available resources, etc? Because the person that made the call did. The issue is you’re jumping straight to calling it a bad decision when you don’t have all the information and you have the benefit of hindsight. No one has an issue with doing an investigation, we have issues with jumping to conclusions.

If it turns out they did make a call that wasn’t consistent with the information at the time, then you can lead the mob. Until then, quit being an armchair quarterback.

-6

u/Lucky_Double_8301 Jul 15 '25

I did have all the information. It’s not a hard decision. When the fire is small and easy to catch, put it out. Or things like this will happen. I’ve seen this numerous times in my 20 career as a boots on the ground firefighter. I’ve had opportunities to catch small fires that turned into big, expensive campaign fires because someone could make a decision. It’s not that difficult to make the connection that letting a fire go in peak fire season with forecasted wind is a bad idea. I don’t really care as much because it was NPS buildings that burned but try explaining to a private person why their house burned when the fire was only smoldering at an acre for 3 days??

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u/No_Mind3009 Jul 15 '25

Well now no one can take you seriously if you’re claiming you had all the same information as the people that were actually there. I hope NPS keeps you on speed dial since you’re obviously omniscient.

1

u/Lucky_Double_8301 Jul 15 '25

The information is available to anyone, we brief on it every day. All the fire weather, fuel moisture, IRC, drought advisories, red flag warnings. Upcoming wind events. Potential for large fires. There are full fire weather/fire potential briefings from NOAA uploaded to YouTube daily.

5

u/larry_flarry Jul 15 '25

Why didn't you speak up and tell them they were going to lose it? Sounds like you had it all figured out.

What quals do you hold? That's the third time I've asked...

0

u/Lucky_Double_8301 Jul 16 '25

Ask one more time. Maybe I’ll tell you