When U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declared over 800,000 acres of land in the Grand Canyon, Arizona, a national monument in 1908, he emphasized the need to take care of it.   He urged Americans to protect it in its natural state so it could be preserved for future generations,

At least 235 properties have either been destroyed, damaged or were threatened by the fire, according to preliminary numbers.

Drought, a warming climate and decades of firefighting policies that suppressed natural fires have turned many grasslands and forests across the West into tinderboxes.