History for Chron

Wind gusts up to 85 mph fanned a massive fire at Yellowstone National Park that gutted 17 buildings near Old Faithful.

Firefighters also were fighting fires that required evacuations of 50 homes in the Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming east of Yellowstone, and two dozen homes and a Boy Scouts camp near Boulder, Colorado.

Fire crews prepared to defend two other Montana towns on the border with Yellowstone, while other teams of firefighters battled fires in Idaho, Oregon, California, Washington and Utah.

Federal authorities called it the worst fire season in 30 years. Blazes charred some 3.65 million acres, an area larger than the state of Connecticut.

The cockpit recording of Delta Flight 1141 showed how pilots battled engine failures after the Boeing 727 took off on Aug. 31 from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

The crash killed 13 of the 108 passengers on board. Capt. Larry Davis, who was injured but survived, was heard on the recording saying: “We’re not gunna make it.”