Michael Not only careless campers or malicious arsonists cause forest fires. They often have completely natural causes, such as lightning strikes or intense sunlight. The fire then renews the forest. The old trees go up in flames, the pine cones fall to the ground, and the heat of the fire releases the tree seeds contained within them, which then slip into the soil and, after some time, allow new trees to sprout.

Until 1988, the park rangers in Yellowstone followed the "Let it burn!" policy regarding fires and only intervened with firefighting vehicles when human lives or historical structures were at risk. However, in 1988, a third of the national park burned because, by the time the park service finally decided to intervene, the fire was no longer controllable. The 15 separate fires spread at times with rapid speed, up to 1.5 km per hour. One of the fires, under extremely dry weather conditions and aided by wind, actually covered 15 kilometers in a day!

Firefighters from all parts of the country who were called to the emergency area cut firebreaks in the forest, with a total length exceeding 1,300 kilometers. However, there was no stopping it; the fire broke through these barriers with few exceptions. It even leaped over the Yellowstone River to the forest on the other bank to continue its path. Firefighting experts call this effect "spotting." The wind carries ping-pong ball-sized embers from a blazing fire hundreds of meters away, and at the point of impact, they immediately ignite small fires on the bone-dry ground.

At the northern end of the park, the fire approached the private property of the sect "Church Universal and Triumphant," and the community threatened to sue the park if their sacred sites were damaged. Firefighters intervened massively with water helicopters, and sect members positioned themselves near the fire front to ward off the flames with chants. The action was successful, and both groups considered their contribution crucial to this small partial success.

But elsewhere, the fire continued to blaze uncontrollably. After three months, it was finally possible to contain the fire due to the onset of snow and rain. Nowadays, the motto "Let it Burn" is no longer applied without restriction; only fires that meet certain criteria are allowed to burn out by the park rangers, while all others are extinguished rigorously.

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• More topics you might be interested in:

  	Fire in California
  	Oil in the Bay
  	Yellowstone-Nationalpark
  	Do not Feed the Bears
  	Geysers and bubbling mud pots
  	Bisons
  	Namensforschung
  	Party canceled: Halloween in the Castro