How a ‘good fire’ in the Grand Canyon exploded into a raging inferno

On the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, firefighters thought they could contain a blaze so the flames could benefit the area’s ecology.

But then high winds caused the fire to blow up. “Embers were raining down everywhere,” said one park employee who witnessed the event.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. — When lightning sparked a small fire amid the stately ponderosa pines on the remote North Rim of the Grand Canyon last month, national parks officials treated it like a good thing.

Instead of racing to put the fire out immediately, as was the practice for decades, they deferred to the doctrines of modern fire science. The prevailing wisdom says the American West was forged by flames that nourish the soil and naturally reduce the supply of dry fuels.

So officials built contain