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The summer of 1988 turned out to be the driest-hottest summer of Yellowstone National Park. By July 21, due to these conditions within the park 99,000 acres were a blaze. With tremendous winds the fires extended to 150,000 acres.
Into August and early September the roads were closed to the public and residents of the nearby towns for fear of property and lives. Yellowstone's fire management plan was the #1 topic amongst the affected park border towns. The fire had neither rhyme nor reason as it would pass over one town, resident or area but then destroy the next one in its path.
The fire camps came in at a count of 25,000 firefighters. Every local became involved by either fighting the fire, providing their own personal vehicles, cooking at the fire camps or operating equipment for water access or digging trenches. The fire extended past Cooke City to the Beartooths traveling over to Wyoming along Hwy 296. The cost of the fires was $120 million.
Thankfully, the fires killed no visitors or nearby residents, however 2 firefighters lost their lives by accidents. Some local residents tried to save their personal belongings and necessities such as tools to rebuild after the destruction; they dug holes several feet into the dirt and buried items to hide from the flames. The last of the smoldering went out in November.
The staff in Yellowstone National Park studied the impacts of the fires on wildlife, plants, historic structures, trails and more to answer the demands for information on how the fire was handled, to provide information, explanation and a new fire management policy.
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