First fire confirmed in Yellowstone National Park in 2025

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyoming (Daily Montanan)

— Firefighters in Yellowstone National Park have controlled the first fire confirmed in the park in 2025, Yellowstone said Wednesday in a news release.

Hikers detected the wildland fire on the Bighorn Pass Trail on Monday, May 26.

The “creeping ground fire” burning in a mixed conifer forest is one tenth of an acre and was started by lighting, the park said. In an average year, the park counts roughly 24 fires, 80% of which are caused by lightning, according to data on Yellowstone’s website.

Wednesday, Yellowstone said parkwide fire danger for Yellowstone is low, and no fire restrictions are in place or planned for the time being.

However, the Biscuit Basin area remains closed this summer.

Last summer, a hydrothermal explosion from the Black Diamond Pool in the Biscuit Basin area northwest of Old Faithful spewed debris, including rocks as wide as 3 feet, into the air and damaged a boardwalk.

RELATED | WATCH: Biscuit Basin closed in Yellowstone National Park after massive explosion

The park’s website said the closure is in place “due to the possibility of another event” at the site along with the damage caused last year.

Earlier this month, Yellowstone Volcano Observatory scientists installed a new webcam in Biscuit Basin with static images that are updated every 15 minutes and can be viewed here.

“We hope that this new view is of interest to the public, and we are confident it will provide a new perspective on activity at Black Diamond Pool that will be useful for the ongoing assessment of hazards from the area,” said a U.S. Geological Survey, one of the agencies that’s part of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

As for fires, Yellowstone counted nine blazes in 2024, and it said all but one were caused by lightning. The largest one burned four acres. In 2023, all five fires were caused by lighting, and the largest was just half an acre.

“The Greater Yellowstone area is a fire-adapted ecosystem,” the park said. “Fire plays an important role in maintaining the health of this area’s wildlife habitat and vegetation.”

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