Staff and residents of Grand Canyon National Park’s North Rim evacuated Friday evening after continued growth of the nearby Dragon Bravo Fire.
The evacuations came after previous evacuation orders related to the White Sage Fire burning to the north of the park.
Those previous evacuations came late in the day Thursday and forced close to 500 park visitors to leave.
The evacuation area for both the White Sage Fire and the Dragon Bravo Fire now spans close to 980 square miles from the Utah border in the north to the North Rim to the south, the House Rock Valley to the east, and the Kaibab National Forest boundary to the west.
The lightning-caused Dragon Bravo Fire has been burning for close to a week and park officials were managing the blaze to benefit forest health.
However, it appears the size of the fire has grown significantly within the last day.
The fire was listed at about 150 acres on Thursday evening but has grown since that time.
U.S. Highway 89A remains closed between Fredonia and Bitter Springs.