JACOB LAKE, Ariz.—For Melinda Rich, the Dragon Bravo Fire did not feel like the end of a season at the Grand Canyon’s North Rim.
It felt as though the season never happened at all.
“Last year was terrible. Last year, we didn’t have a year,” said Rich, food manager at Jacob Lake Inn, located about 45 miles from the North Rim in Jacob Lake, Arizona.
A lightning strike on July 4 sparked the Dragon Bravo Fire, which scorched 145,504 acres and destroyed dozens of historic structures across the region.
Wildfires exceeding 100,000 acres are considered megafires.
Later that same day, another lightning strike ignited the White Sage Fire roughly 50 miles to the northwest. That fire ultimately burned nearly 59,000 acres near Highway 89A….