Wildfire Closes Yellowstone National Park South Gate, Employees Evacuate

A disaster hit the Yellowstone National park as wildfire forced authorities to close its south gate along with evacuating the employees for safety.

The Yellowstone National Park is a protected ecosystem under the care of the National Parks Services. A lot of animals including grizzly bears live in the protected area of the park that mimics their natural habitat. Various natural formations can also be found inside the park including river systems, a caldera and even natural camping grounds.

However, a recent wildfire incident caused a disruption of operations within the park, as the south gate was closed due the fires last Sunday, Sept. 11. Because of the extent of the fire, some employees were also evacuated for their safety.

The Berry fire that occurred in the southern part of Yellowstone released heavy fumes of smoke in the south entrance of the Lizard Creek Campground on Highway 89. But despite the incident, Lewis Lake Campground remained operation with designated entry and exit points on the northern part of the park.
Because of this, the authorities have limited the number of visitors that can go in the southern part of Yellowstone. The National Park Service announced that only visitors driving towards the campground and backcountry campsites will be allowed to go beyond the Grant intersection.

The 16,800-acre of wildfire was attributed to strong winds and humidity last Sunday, according to a report. Rangers were sent to manage the fire and to protect parts of the park. NPS officials are confident that the conditions will improve next week as the temperature is expected to drop as well.

Earlier this year, a part of the park was also temporarily closed when an overly curious tourist fell to his death in an off-limits hot spring inside Yellowstone. Because of violations like these, NPS is closely monitoring tourist activities within the park to protect the natural resources, animals and the tourists as well.

In addition to that, geologists are also closely monitoring the caldera inside the park because a study revealed that the supervolcano underneath Yellowstone is brewing a huge magma reserve that may trigger an eruption. Eruptions of supervolcanoes are more powerful that the average volcanic activities because of the size of their magma reserves.