The Fires of 1988

Twenty years ago Yellowstone National Park burst into flames; over a million of the park's beautiful acres were burned. The initial blaze was started by a single lightning strike that hit near Old Faithful Geyser, but park officials weren't worried at first; the fire was allowed to burn because of the natural burn policy which states that fires are to run their natural course as long as the fire was not man made, and as long as human lives, property, endangered species, or natural features were in danger. The decision to let the fires continue to burn became a huge controversy as they continued to consume thousands of acres of the world's first national park; park officials did not realize that the summer of '88 was one of the driest and windiest summers Yellowstone had ever experienced, so the fires were moving rapidly. They grew larger every day and were allowed to burn for an entire month before the decision to combat the blaze was made. By this time there were hundreds of fires burning in different places throughout the park. A firefighting effort was finally put into place and it became the largest firefighting effort in history. 9,500 firefighters from all over the nation came to Yellowstone to try to tame the blazes. 800 miles of fire line, 117 aircraft, 100 fire engines, and 1,000,000 gallons of fire retardant were also used in the effort to fight the fires but none of it stopped the fires - they were too large and moving too fast to even make a dent in their path. The fires burned the entire summer months; the snowfall in winter is what eventually put out the historic fires. The damage to the park was devastating. Acres of vegetation was killed, along with hundreds of magnificent animals that inhabit Yellowstone, such as bison, elk, moose, and wolves. The damage is still very visible today. It will take years for Yellowstone to recover from the 1988 fires... some areas were burned so bad that there will never be new growth. But there is new growth in Yellowstone, and much of the beauty that was lost twenty years ago is coming back. Although more anger was caused by the fires, scientists say that the fires were necessary for the environment and its natural growth. People today still disagree that the fires were a positive thing for the park because it will never look the way it did before the blazes. Regardless of whether they were a positive thing or a negative thing, the fires damaged a massive area of the beautiful park.