About 500 visitors were evacuated from the Grand Canyon on the night of July 10, as smoke from a nearby wildfire caused the closure of the North Rim in Arizona.
Employees and residents on the North Rim were told to shelter in place.
The Bureau of Land Management said that a wildfire started on its land near Jacob Lake on July 9 after a thunderstorm rolled through the area, with “gusty and erratic winds” inhibiting firefighters and spreading the flames through July 10. By the afternoon of July 11, it had burned 13.5 square miles with none of it contained.
Dark clouds of smoke began settling over the Grand Canyon on July 10, and a Grand Canyon spokesperson confirmed that about 500 visitors planning to stay the night in the national park were evacuated the night before….