GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. — A wildfire that tore through a historic Grand Canyon lodge and raged out of control Monday had been allowed to burn for days before erupting over the weekend, raising scrutiny over the National Park Service's decision not to aggressively attack the fire right away.
The wildfire along the canyon's more isolated North Rim, where most visitors don't venture, was burning quickly with no containment, fire officials said. No injuries had been reported, but more than 70 structures were lost, including a visitors center and several cabins.
At first, the fire didn't raise alarms after igniting from a lightning strike on July 4. Four days later, the Park Service said the fire was being allowed to burn to benefit the land and fire crews were keeping close watch.
''There are no threats to infrastructure or public safety at this time,'' the park said on Facebook.
Then three days later, on Friday, fire officials and the park service sent out warnings to ''evacuate immediately'' as the fire grew by nearly eight times within a day to more than 1.4 square miles (3.6 square kilometers).
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs called for a federal investigation into the Park Service's handling of the fire.
''The federal government chose to manage that fire as a controlled burn during the driest, hottest part of the Arizona summer," the governor said in a social media post Sunday.
She will be meeting with leadership in the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior soon to learn more about the decisions made in managing the wildfire, Hobbs' spokesperson Christian Slater said in an email.