Comments about ‘Fire spreads to Bryce Canyon’

As one of the evacuees from this fire, I have to say that I'm somewhat surprised we made it out. The combination of "paralysis by analysis" that beset the park rangers as the situation became more fluid when the winds increased; combined with the inability of many of the vehicles' drivers ability to follow instructions (whether it was intentional and motivated by the need to be the first one out, or whether it was due to the fact that many foreign site-seers were there who had difficulty understanding the language in what was a stressful situation); led to a potentially bad outcome.

All in all, the rangers handled the situation as best they could, but it seemed they were not truly trained in this type of operation. Also, the mass communication system that is in place (or more accurately, not in place) for informing all park employees and visitors of the situation needs to be analyzed and improved.

We were there also on tuesday and we saw the flames flaring up over the trees. The ranger had us all leave the area and move to Inspiration Point. Even from there you could smell the fire and see all the smoke