Yellowstone Wildfire

Date: August 20, 1988 • Location: West Yellowstone, United States

More than 150,000 acres (610 km2) were burned on the worst day of the largest wildfire in the recorded history of Yellowstone National Park in the United States.

The largest wildfire in the recorded history of Yellowstone National Park in the United States took place in 1988. Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames quickly spread out of control due to drought conditions and increasing winds, combining into several large conflagrations which burned for several months. The fires almost destroyed two major visitor destinations and, on September 8, 1988, the entire park was closed to all non-emergency personnel for the first time in its history. Only the arrival of cool and moist weather in the late autumn brought the fires to an end. A total of 793,880 acres (321,272 ha), or 36 percent of the national park, burned at varying levels of severity.