Yellowstone fires of 1988 is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community.Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so. No day was more memorable than Sept. 7, 1988, when the North Fork Fire, driven by hurricane-force winds burned over the top of us and nearly claimed the Old Faithful Inn. . The flames scorched about 1.2 million acres … These fires were historical for several reasons. The 1988 wildfire season was an event that changed the course of how Yellowstone National Park managed naturally occurring wildfires. These fires accounted for more than half of the total acres burned in the greater Yellowstone area, and included most of the fires that received intensive media attention. A fire fighting crew from the California Division of Forestry were angered by a threat to be fined for leaving a roadway to fight the fire in Yellowstone National Park during the 1988 fires. On September 8, 1988, the entire park was closed to all non-emergency people for the first time in its history. Today you still can find some scars created by the 1988 fires. Weather conditions and a “let-burn” natural fire policy in Yellowstone National Park resulted in the massive 1988 fires that blackened 683,000 acres of land. It also recommended improvements that were incorporated into the National Park Service’s fire policy of June 1990 and into Yellowstone National Park’s fire management plan of 1992. The Yellowstone Fires of 1988. The policy up until 1988 was to allow naturally caused fires to burn themselves out or in many cases the National Park Service instituted controlled burn plans, while man caused fires were always suppressed. Remembering The 1988 Yellowstone Fires Twenty years ago this summer, Yellowstone caught fire. Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames quickly spread out of control with increasing winds and drought and combined into one large conflagration, which burned for several months. Of the fires that occur in Yellowstone, 75% are less than 0.2 acres and another 13% range from 0.3 to 9.9 acres. The Yellowstone fires of 1988 have been described as being instrumental in the public’s understanding of the role of fire in ecosystems, history-making, and career-building. The Yellowstone Fires consumed 1.4 million acres of Greater Yellowstone (a loosely defined area of about 10 million acres), including 739,000 of the park's 2.2 million acres. The Yellowstone Fires of 1988 June 14, 1988: A small fire starts on Storm Creek, just north of Yellowstone National Park. The Yellowstone fires of 1988 formed the largest wildfire in the history of Yellowstone National Park. . The lessons learned from the summer of 1988 when fires burned nearly one third of Yellowstone National Park continue to shape the way we fight wildfires raging across the West today. More than 25,000 firefighters cycled through the park combating 50 wildfires, seven of which became major wildfires. A number of major fires started outside the park. The Yellowstone fires of 1988 collectively formed the largest wildfire in the recorded history of Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Although smaller, natural fires are still allowed to burn, they are monitored closely and suppressed if they exceed parameters regarding size, weather, and potential danger. A number of major fires started outside the park.