The largest of four wildfires now simultaneously burning in Yellowstone Park (Maple, Buffalo, Fawn, Boundary fires) has Wyoming fire officials scrambling in a desperate effort to keep it from spreading to areas housing some of the park's tourist attractions.

As of Monday, all of the park's main tourist facilities remained open, even though the Maple fire (the biggest blaze among the four fires) is reported to have grown by nearly 10 square miles in a span of a few hours, prompting authorities to order more firefighters to the area. As authorities keep a vigilant eye on the nearby Madison Junction area of the park reserved for hiking, fishing and other activities, firemen are now working around the clock to contain the blaze. A 10-mile stretch of road leading to Yellowstone's South entrance has already been shuttered.

Conditions Hampering Firefighters

Thus far, warm and windy weather has hampered efforts to contain the flames, which have charred approximately 35 square miles of primarily remote forest land. The proximity of the fire is reported to be between West Yellowstone, Montana, a town of about 1,300 situated just outside the park's western boundaries, and Madison Junction, a recreational area that sits within the park's confines.

Containment Essential

"As it's pushing off to the north and east, there's not a lot of values at risk as far as infrastructure goes," said Mike Johnson, a spokesman with the National Park Service. "We're going to keep the fire to the north of the West Entrance Road, and we have plans in place that if the fire were to move to the west toward West Yellowstone."

Madison Junction is also home to a campground, some visitor facilities and staff housing. It's described as where West Entrance Road intersects with the park's Grand Loop Road, linking such major tourist attractions as Old Faithful and Yellowstone Lake.

Johnson added firefighters are also busy battling the three smaller fires that have swept across the area.

As of early in the week, the Maple fire remained confined to about three miles away from Madison Junction and about four miles from the West Yellowstone Entrance station. On Sunday, the blaze spread several thousand more acres to now consume roughly 27,000 acres in total.

Meanwhile, authorities are now monitoring the two-week old, lightening caused Fawn fire by both ground and air with the acerage of the blaze currentlyb at around 1,800 acres.

The Buffalo fire in Tatanka Complex about 3 miles northeast of Tower Junction has simmered a bit and is now being managed via monitoring and so-called point-protection strategies.

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