When Jaime Coffin arrived at Phantom Ranch, she expected it to be — for the most part — like her other trips to the Grand Canyon.
Coffin, who lives near Prescott, has been visiting the South Rim of the Grand Canyon since 2005. The hike down to Phantom Ranch on July 12 would be one of her longest so far, with a hike of about 7.5 miles on the South Kaibab Trail to get to the bottom, where the Phantom Ranch lodge is located.
People often make reservations at the lodge months in advance, but Coffin and her friends got lucky, as someone had canceled their reservation about two months prior, she said.
Coffin and her friends started the 7.5-mile hike at about 4:30 a.m. At one point during the hike, Coffin said she saw what looked like a thick fog settling towards the bottom of the canyon. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that was smoke from the fire mixed with the chlorine gas.
At about 3:30 p.m. that day, firefighters fighting the Dragon Bravo Fire reported that a water treatment facility in the North Rim had caught fire. Later, it was confirmed that chlorine gas had also been leaking, according to the National Park Service.
They arrived about 5 and 1/2 hours later to settle into their cabin and prepare for the steak dinner at the Phantom Ranch Canteen.
Tired from the hike in the 120-degree weather, they were in the cabin getting ready for dinner when the air conditioning went out, Coffin said. Coffin was about to shower to cool down when her friend informed her that they were being told to pack their things and prepare to evacuate.
Initially, Coffin figured the immediate threat was the fire until she and the rest of the Phantom Ranch lodgers were informed that chlorine gas was leaking into the canyon.
Helicopters evacuate visitors from Phantom Ranch Lodge at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon due to a chlorine gas leak from a water facility, caused by the Dragon Bravo Fire, on June 12, 2025.
A water treatment facility at the North Rim had been compromised by the fire, causing chlorine gas, which is heavier than air, to fall toward the bottom of the canyon.
From there, everything happened quite fast, Coffin said. Everyone was incredibly coordinated and organized in the evacuation, including the hotel staff, bus drivers, park rangers and wildland firefighters, she said.
Everyone was safely evacuated from the area via helicopter within the next hour to hour and a half, Coffin said. Two helicopters carried four people out at a time, each making about four trips, according to Coffin.
Coffin fears flying and had only flown twice before being flown out of the Grand Canyon, but the fear of the chlorine gas overtook the fear of flying, she said.
“I was on the helicopter, and it was actually a huge relief to leave there. And it was beautiful,” Coffin said.
Everyone on the helicopter felt calm and was relieved to be getting out of the situation, Coffin said.
While she didn’t experience the more severe effects of chlorine poisoning, like vision loss or lung damage, she did experience some of the milder symptoms, such as burning eyes and a burning throat. She initially attributed that to the smoke from the fire, Coffin said.
The inner canyon locations of North Kaibab Trail, the South Kaibab Trail and Phantom Ranch closed as a result of the gas leak, the park service said.
On the afternoon of July 15, Stefan La-Sky, public information officer for Southwest Area Complex Incident Management Team, told the Arizona Republic in a phone call that the atmosphere was tested and deemed safe, with the gas having dissipated. However, the evacuations were still in place, La-Sky said.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Hiker evacuated from Grand Canyon lodge during Dragon Bravo Fire