The Grand Canyon Lodge is the only hotel on the park's North Rim, which is closed for the rest of the season due to wildfire risk. The hotel was already rebuilt once, after a kitchen fire in 1932.

It was not long before the small plumes transformed into huge flames. Mr Crockett, vice-president of the non-profit Grand Canyon Historical Society, went to bed but worries kept him up. The historic Grand Canyon Lodge, with its panoramic views of one of the natural wonders of the world, was in the path of those flames.