The Grand Canyon Lodge was one of dozens of structures destroyed in a fast-moving wildfire in Arizona over the weekend, the National Park Service confirmed.

Wildfires burning at or near the Grand Canyon's North Rim are still raging as strong winds, high heat and low humidity persist.

A wildfire that tore through a historic Grand Canyon Lodge​ had been allowed to burn for days before erupting over the weekend, raising questions about federal officials' decision not to aggressively attack it right away.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. land managers are racing the clock as hotter, drier weather raises the risk of wildfires in the nation’s overgrown forests with each passing year.

“The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is like another world,” said Ethan Aumack, executive director of the Grand Canyon Trust, who has fond memories of skiing through the woods to the rim after the lone road that leads there closes for the winter. “It feels like a much more personal place.”

Wildfires can burn and spread differently depending on what vegetation they burn. The two fires in northern Arizona have varied landscapes. Ponderosa pine trees grow near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and can live for hundreds of years.