- Subject: NPS Morning Report - Wednesday, August 15, 1990
- Date: Wed, 15 Aug 1990
RANGER ACTIVITIES DIVISION
MORNING REPORT
Attention: Directorate
Regional and Park Chief Rangers, USPP, BIFC, FLETC
CC: RAD Information Net
Day/date: Wednesday, August 15, 1990
INCIDENTS
90-254 - Great Smokies (North Carolina/Tennessee) - Successful Rescue
At 3:30 p.m. on the afternoon of the 8th, park dispatch received a call from
a Wears Valley HAM radio operator and a member of the American Radio
Emergency Service who in turn had been contacted by a Boy Scout leader on
Mt. Guyot along the Appalachian Trail. The scout leader reported that a
second leader, 51-year-old J.G. of Albany, Mississippi, was suffering
from acute chest pains radiating out into his arms, was sweating and
nauseous, and had a history of high blood pressure. Ranger George Minnigh
arrived on scene by horseback at 7 p.m., transmitted preliminary vital signs
to the park's medical control, and began to administer oxygen. Park Medic
Steve Kloster arrived on scene at 8:15 p.m. and began administering
sublingual nitroglycerine on radioed advice from a doctor. The two rangers
then put J.G. on horseback and began down; they met the park litter team,
who carried him to the trailhead, arriving at that point at 1:30 a.m. J.G.
was taken by ambulance to Sevier County Medical Center where he is now in an
ICU in stable condition. Virtually the entire rescue was conducted during
heavy rains and occasional thunderstorms. Visibility was nil, precluding
use of a helicopter at any point. (CompuServe message from Jason Houck, CR,
GRSM, 8/14).
90-255 - Zion (Utah) - Drug Arrests
On the morning of the 13th, rangers arrested two Boulder, Colorado, men for
possession of controlled substances, including marijuana, cocaine, and what
is suspected to be LSD and PCP. A quantity of mushrooms were also seized.
Along with the drugs, many of which were individually packaged and marked
for apparent sale, over $3,000 in cash was seized, a third of which was
found hidden in a flashlight from which the batteries had been removed. The
arrests came about as the result of an out-of-bounds camping violation. The
two men were turned over to the Washington County Sheriff and have been
charged with possession and intent to sell. One subject has been charged
with a first-degree felony (he had a previous drug arrest) and is being held
on $75,000 bail; the second has been charged with multiple second-degree
felonies and is being held on $50,000 bail. Since both subjects have a
history of failures to appear on previous enforcement actions, they must
come up with the full amount to bail out. The FBI and U.S. Attorney's
Office are also involved, since prosecution under Title 21 is being
considered. (CompuServe message from Larry Van Slyke, CR, ZION, 8/14).
FIRE ACTIVITY
1) PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - V (HIGHEST LEVEL)
Several geographic areas are experiencing major incidents which have the
potential to exhaust all agency fire resources. 625 crews committed
nationally.
2) NATIONAL OVERVIEW
The 22,000 firefighters (748 crews and 5,067 overhead personnel) in the
field yesterday on 21 major fires were joined by 1,200 soldiers from Fort
Lewis, Washington. An additional 1,200 troops from Fort Carson, Colorado,
arrived in Chico, California, yesterday. Central Oregon fires experienced
extreme burning conditions Tuesday due to local heating and atmospheric
instability. Some firefighters have now been on line for over a week and
fatigue is becoming a factor.
3) NATIONAL FIRE SUMMARY
State Agency Area Fire 8/14 8/15 Status
CA NPS Yosemite Arch Rock Comp. - T1:
A-Rock 13,393 17,000 CN 8/17
T-4 635 695 CN 8/15
Steamboat - T1 4,000 4,400 CN 8/16
Whiskeytown Kanaka 2,930 2,896 CN 8/14
USFS Sequoia Stormy Comp. -
2 T1 24,200 24,200 CN 8/15
Lassen Finley Lake 17,500 18,744 None
Mendocino Elkhorn Comp. -
T2: 1,200 470 CN 8/16
Recer - 3,182 CN 8/16
Tahoe Buttes 220 220 Yes
BLM Susanville Shinn 31,000 17,800 Yes
CA CDF Campbell 114,000 115,000 CN 8/16
MacArthur Command 6,385 6,385 Yes
Devil 405 510 CN 8/15
Mattole Comp. 15,000 15,100 None
ID USFS Payette Yellow Pn. Camp. - T1 571 571 Yes
Wilderness Comp. - T2 3,430 3,808 None
WA USFS Wenatchee Leavenworth Comp. -
T2: 500+ 500 None
Gifford Pinchot Louie - T2 100 100 Yes
Okanogan Freeze Out 195 195 None
OR USFS Ochoco Buck Sp. Camp. - T2 21,640 21,640 CN 8/15
Pine Spring Camp. - T1 NR 73,700 Yes
Malheur Sheep Mt. Comp. - T2 9,670 10,500 CN 8/20
Snowshoe - T1 11,285 11,285 None
BLM Vale Thornton - T2 800 995 None
WY USFS Bridger-Teton Hot Foot - T2 100 127 CN 8/15
MT BIA North. Cheyenne *Joy Complex - T2 - 750+ None
AZ USFS Prescott Pine 720 720 CN 8/20
AK NPS Denali A-148 46,050 46,050 MN
A-374 1,810 1,810 MN
A-255 23,800 23,800 MN
A-406 11,500 16,000 MN
A-413 6,010 6,010 MN
A-391 20,000 20,000 MN
FWS Galena Zone A-204 150,000 150,000 None
BLM Southwest Area 004069 5,636 5,636 CN 8/15
004068 - T2 11,509 11,509 CN 8/15
004034 117,924 117,924 None
004056 126,316 126,316 None
AK Tok Area 013021 - T1 94,650 94,650 CN 8/20
Galena Zone A-467 12,000 17,000 None
Native Galena Zone A-469 550 550 None
Alaska also has 27 fires unstaffed under modified suppression
strategy for a total of 1,104,603 acres and 45 fires under limited
suppression strategy for 898,259 acres.
NOTES:
- Fires - Asterisk indicates newly reported fire (on this
report). T1 and T2 indicate assigned Type I and Type II Teams.
- Status - The following abbreviations are employed:
* NR - No report received
* CN - Contained
* CL - Controlled
* MN - Being monitored
* None - No estimate of containment
* Yes - Fire has been contained
4) NPS NARRATIVES -
- Yosemite (California) - The park remains closed to the public.
Cooler temperatures, the absence of predicted thunderstorms and the
addition of a number of firefighting crews have aided suppression efforts.
* A-Rock - The fire is now 70 percent contained, and full containment is
expected on Friday. Excellent progress was made on the fire yesterday
due to the arrival and deployment of adequate resources. El Portal
is no longer threatened. The threat to all other structures is very
low because of Monday night's successful burnout operations. PCB and
asbestos contamination in Foresta is a concern, and a hazard waste
team is now on site there. Other fires in the A-Rock Complex include
Laurel Lake 1 (60 - 800 acres), Laurel Lake 2 (40 - 600 acres), Frog 2
(50 acres), and nine additional small fires.
* T-4 - The fire is now 90 percent contained and should be fully
contained by 8 p.m. PDT this evening. Just over 300 firefighters and
overhead have been assigned to this fire. Aspen Valley summer homes are
no longer in danger.
* Steamboat - The fire is 60 percent contained, and residents of
Yosemite West have been allowed to return home. Containment is
expected tomorrow.
- Whiskeytown/Shasta/Trinity (California) -
* Kanaka Fire - The fire was contained on Tuesday afternoon.
- Lassen Volcanic (California) -
* Finley Lake Fire - The fire is still burning actively, but has been
50 percent contained. Thirteen structures were lost (none on park land)
on Tuesday and the fire is currently threatening the Battle Creek
drainage as well as structures in the park and around the community of
Manton. Four strike teams - 70 firefighters and 20 engines - have been
assigned to protect park headquarters, and 40 personnel from the park
have been committed to its protection. The park and town have been
without electricity since Saturday.
- Sequoia/Kings Canyon (California) -
* Avalanche 1 RX Fire - The fire has been contained at 2,083 acres.
* Stag - The fire has been contained at 27 acres, and demobilization is
to begin today.
5) NATIONAL FIRE ACTIVITY - 156 fires for 25,315 acres in past 24 hours.
1989 1990
Year-to-date Fires 42,455 45,295
Year-to-date Acres 1,421,516 3,547,061
6) NPS FIRE DANGERS - The following parks reported high to extreme fire
danger yesterday:
High Very High Extreme
Grant-Kohrs Lava Beds Pinnacles
Golden Gate Zion Badlands
Joshua Tree Whiskeytown Noatak
Dinosaur Lassen Volcanic Yukon-Charlie
Yosemite Death Valley John Day Fossil Beds
Redwoods Theodore Roosevelt Coulee Dam
Denali Cumberland Island Hawaii Volcanoes
Indiana Dunes North Cascades
Point Reyes Sequoia/Kings
Gulf Islands Crater Lake
Olympic Bryce Canyon
Voyageurs Craters of the Moon
Wrangell-St. Elias
7) NPS MOBILIZATION/DEMOBILIZATION -
Resource August 13 August 14
Firefighters 641 640
Monitors 13 13
Overhead personnel 205 193
Type I crews 2 2
Engines 14 14
Helicopters 4 4
The breakdown by region of personnel committed as of yesterday is
as follows:
AR MAR MWR NAR NCR PNR RMR SER SWR WR
Firefighters 0 70 77 31 25 83 122 96 36 100
Overhead 2 12 9 0 2 22 58 35 36 25
The breakdown by region of personnel available for callout at their
home parks as of yesterday is as follows:
AR MAR MWR NAR NCR PNR RMR SER SWR WR
Firefighters 28 20 20 17 10 0 53 28 67 0
Overhead 0 9 4 0 2 0 21 16 39 0
8) ANALYSIS - Substantial progress has been made towards containment on
several fires due to low winds, higher humidities, successful burnout
operations and adequate resources. High winds associated with
thunderstorms caused some problems with fires on the Malheur NF in
Oregon. The number of new starts has moderated throughout the
Western United States.
9) PROGNOSIS - Containment targets should be met on several large fires
as weather forecasts call for cooler temperatures and higher humidities.
Winds associated with thunderstorms could cause problems on on-going
fires. Resource shortages are expected to moderate as more fires
reach containment and reassignments occur.
(A-Rock and T-Grove 209's, 1400, 8/14; CompuServe report from Diane Wisley
and Kristy MacMillan, Branch of Fire, Boise, 2030 MDT, 8/14; National Fire
Information Center's "National Fire News", 2100 MDT, 8/14; NICC Intelligence
Section, Fire Management Situation Report, 0530 MDT, 8/15).
STAFF STATUS
- Division Chief: No travel scheduled.
- Branch of Resource & Visitor Protection: Coffey on SL (8/13-8/17).
- Branch of Fire: Len Dams and Sandy Rives from Shenandoah detailed to the
Branch (WASO) indefinitely; Diane Wisely detailed to the Branch (Boise)
from PNRO (8/6-8/24); Kristy MacMillan detailed to the Branch (Boise)
from Buffalo NSR (8/10-8/20).
Prepared by WASO Division of Ranger Activities
Telephone: FTS 268-4874/6039 or 202-208-4874/6039
Telefax: FTS 268-5977 or 202-208-5977
CompuServe: WASO-RANGER (Branch of R&VP); WASO-FIRE-WO (Branch of Fire)
SEAdog: 1/650