RANGER ACTIVITIES DIVISION
                           MORNING REPORT

Attention: Directorate
           Regional and Park Chief Rangers, USPP, BIFC, FLETC
           CC: RAD Information Net

Day/date:  Friday, June 9, 1989

INCIDENTS

89-123 - Gulf Islands - Building Destruction and Employee Injury

At 9:30 yesterday morning, a tornado completely destroyed the Fort Pickens
entrance station at Gulf Islands. Seasonal ranger Amanda Rhodes, 26, who
was in the building at the time, was taken to the hospital and treated for
shock, bruises, cuts and a possible broken wrist. The contents of the
entrance station were scattered over the surrounding area; although the safe
remained attached to the entrance station's concrete base, the cash register
could not be found. Rhodes' car was also demolished by the tornado.
Because of the severe weather, which began early in the morning and
continued all day, the park offered shelter in the batteries at Fort Pickens
to visitors who were staying in the nearby campground. (Jerry Eubanks,
superintendent, GUIS, via telephone report from RAD/SERO).

FIRE ACTIVITY

1) FIRE SITUATION (Planning Level I)

a) NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

* No significant fires reported.

b) OTHER AGENCY

* Saddle Camp Fire - Wenatchee NF - 121 acres:

The fire has been contained.

2) FIRE ACTIVITY - 76 fires for 3,046 acres in past 24 hours.

3) ANALYSIS - Extensive thunderstorm activity continues throughout the
inter-mountain west.

4) PROGNOSIS - Multiple new starts are expected in the southwest and
southern Great Basin because of lightning activity in areas with very high
to extreme fire danger. No resource shortages anticipated.

5) NOTES - The NPS Wildland Fire Situation Report has been completed for the
period from June 1st to June 7th:

- Fire Danger:

ARO Low
MAR Low
MWR Low-High
NCR Low
NAR Low
PNR Mod
RMR Low-High
SER Low-High
SWR Low-High Extreme:   Big Bend TX
             Very High: Bandelier NM, Canyon de Chelly AZ,
                        Carlsbad Caverns NM
WRO Low-High Extreme:   Chiricahua AZ, Grand Canyon AZ,
                        Saguaro AZ
             Very High: Joshua Tree CA

- Wildfire Occurrence:

Region                  Park                # Fires         # Acres
Rocky Mtn             Dinosaur CO            2                    5
                      Wind Cave SD           1                    0.1
Southeast             Big Cypress FL         3                   22
                      Blue Ridge Pkwy NC     2                    2
                      Everglades FL          1 carry-over         0
Southwest             Big Bend TX            2 carry-over       350
                      Padre Island TX        1                  465
                                           ----                ----
Total                                       12                  842.1

- Prescribed Natural Fire Occurrence:

No prescribed natural fires are being allowed, pending revision and
approval of area fire management plans.

- Prescribed Burn Occurrence:

No prescribed burns were reported during the week.

- National Situation:

There were no major fires reported on NPS lands during the week. The largest
wildfire was an accidentally-ignited dune and grassland fire at Padre Island
National Seashore in Texas. One notable fire was declared out, however;
after a couple of years of intermittent smoldering, the Spring Creek Fire at
gateway has been "excavated" by a contractor and infrared imagery shows no
remaining hot spots in the landfill.

At Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, a volcanic eruption continues, and lava
adjacent to the park boundary is being monitored.

A summer weather pattern appears to be developing in south Florida, with
increasing humidity and thunderstorms. Fire danger remains high there, as
water levels remain extremely low. Two Interagency Hotshot Crews remained in
south Florida during the week for emergency presuppression, one crew at Big
Cypress and the NPS Arrowhead crew at Cape Canaveral.

Fire danger continues to be very high to extreme at NPS areas in Arizona,
New Mexico, and Texas. Thousand-hour fuel moisture readings from 6 to 9%
were reported there.

A Type II Incident Management Team, with Bob Dunnagan as Incident Commander
and 4 other PNR people on board, was dispatched to a wildfire on the
Wenatchee National Forest. Several other NPS fire overhead personnel are
detailed to Alaska for oil spill-related tasks. The Alpine Hotshots remain
in Arizona, where a large number of interagency crews are prepositioned due
to the extreme fire danger continuing in the Southwest.

- Fire Occurrence, Year-To-Date:

Fire Type                 # Fires          # Acres

Wildfires                    186           145,097
Natural Outs                  24             1,346
Prescribed Natural Fires       0               ---
Prescribed Burns              55            30,889
False Alarms                  23               ---
Mutual Aid by NPS             40             3,970
Support Actions               45               ---

(NIFCC Intelligence Section, 0530 MDT, 6/9/89; NPS wildland fire report
prepared by Judi Zuckert, BFM, Boise).

OFFICE NOTES

1) NPS-9 is now in its final edit and we really hope to be done with it
soon. Although we truly appreciate your continuing and animated interest in
this extended project, we are now at the point where no more last minute
inspirations or suggestions can be accepted.

2) A number of questions were raised concerning seasonal rangers at the
Western Regional Chief Rangers1 Conference which are of interest to many.
Following the conference, Jim Loach, who was part of last year's seasonal
task force, met with Mary Jackson, WASO Personnel, and discussed the issues.
Here are the issues and current information regarding each:

Q: Is there a ceiling on GS-7 seasonal employees which prevents use of the
GS-7 grade level for seasonal law enforcement personnel?

A: This issue was raised by last year's task force. Mary says that the
service is not exceeding the ceiling, and that we are not currently being
constrained in hiring seasonals as GS-7s if they are indeed filling a
position classified as GS-7.

Q: Has thought been given to developing a formal method whereby parks can
get additional applicants when their registers are exhausted?

A: The parks will be able to "draw" from a regional list after exhausting
their lists for the '90 season.

Q: It would be useful if a seasonal's last evaluation could be attached to
the current application in order to properly evaluate a person prior to
making a job offer. Can this be done?

A: Nothing can be stapled or attached to the application form, because the
applications are scanned by machine and the machine cannot process the form
with any attachments.

Q: Even though first aid and CPR are no longer required for the law
enforcement commission, some parks would like to use these as screen-out
factors. How can this be done?

A: Parks can continue to use first aid and CPR as screen-out factors by
indicating that they are screen-out criteria. Even though neither is
required for a law enforcement commission, both remain on the application
form.

STAFF STATUS

All hands on board.

Prepared by WASO Division of Ranger Activities

Telephone: FTS 343-4874/6039 or 202-343-4874/6039
Telefax: FTS 343-5977 or 202-343-5977
CompuServe: WASO-RANGER