Gov. Katie Hobbs takes helicopter tour of Grand Canyon fires, gets incident briefing

PHOENIX — Governor Katie Hobbs took a helicopter tour on Saturday to survey damages from the Dragon Bravo Fire and the White Sage Fire, both burning near the Grand Canyon.

She also received a comprehensive briefing by the incident management team about the Dragon Bravo Fire.

The briefing comes two days after pushing for more answers on the decision-making process that led to how the fire was handled during an appearance on KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos.

Aerial footage showed the fire line burning continuously and burn scars left behind near Arizona’s most famous national park.

The helicopter tour also provided overhead visual damages to the destroyed Grand Canyon Lodge.

Gov. Hobbs was joined on the helicopter tour by Gabe Lavine, director of the Arizona Division of Emergency Management, and Thomas Torres, state forester and director of the Department of Forestry and Fire Management.

On the ground, Gov. Hobbs was given a tour of the incident command post and discussed the wildfire response.

“One of the biggest takeaways for me was the amount of cooperation that goes into incidents like this, not just now, but work that’s been happening until now, setting mitigation lines and learning how we need to do that in the future to contain other incidents in the future,” Hobbs said.

Gov. Hobbs talks about damage from the Dragon Bravo Fire

On Thursday, Hobbs said she was concerned about the federal response to mitigation of the Dragon Bravo Fire that was started after a lightning strike on federal land.

“In this case it was a national park (and they) decided to manage it as a controlled burn,” Hobbs told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos.

Gov. Hobbs heading to D.C. for more answers

Hobbs will travel to Washington D.C. next week to discuss what she experienced with the United States Fire Service and Department of Interior.

Her briefing at the Grand Canyon was also attended by Incident Commander Andrew Mandell, Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior Kate MacGregor, acting Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks for the Department of the Interior Kevin Lilly, acting Director of the National Park Service Jessica Bowron and Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Ed Keable.

Fire status

As of Sunday, over 1,500 firefighters were involved in efforts to suppress the two wildfires.

The White Sage Fire has burned more than 58,800 acres and the Dragon Bravo Fire has burned more than 12,600 acres.

Containment on the White Sage Fire rose to 31% on Saturday after it was reported at just 27% on Friday.

The Dragon Bravo Fire showed just 8% containment.

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