- Subject: NPS Morning Report - Friday, June 17, 1994
- Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
To: All National Park Service Areas and Offices
From: Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office
Day/Date: Friday, June 17, 1994
Broadcast: By 0930 ET
INCIDENTS
94-308 - Yellowstone (Wyoming) - Maintenance Worker Injured by Bear
On the morning of June 15th, Glen Lacey, 39, an off-duty park maintenance
worker, was hiking alone on the abandoned Dry Creek service road, now an
unmarked trail, when he rounded a curve and came upon a sow grizzly bear and
two yearling cubs about 60 feet away. He moved toward a nearby tree, but
the sow charged and overtook him, bit him on the right forearm, then
continued past him. Lacey used the tree to shield himself from the bear,
and she returned to her cubs. He then hiked out to his car and drove
himself to Lake Hospital, where he was treated for puncture wounds on his
right forearm and released. Following established procedures, rangers
closed the trail and will monitor bear activity in the area for a period of
time before reopening the trail. No management action is planned against
the bear. [Mike Murray, ACR, YELL, 6/16]
94-309 - Grand Teton (Wyoming) - Falling Fatality
B.M., 40, of Pocatello, Idaho, was fatally injured in a fall on the
Grand Teton on the afternoon of June 11th. B.M. and a friend, Mike
Tucker, were descending the Owen Spalding route on the Grand when B.M.
slipped on snow and fell between 800 and 1,000 feet down a steep snow field,
over a cliff, and into a bowl on the west side of the mountain. Jenny Lake
rangers were notified of the accident around 9 p.m. Rescue personnel were
flown to the lower saddle on the Grand, but were unable to retrieve the body
until the following day because of winds between 60 and 80 mph. The cause
of the accident is still under investigation. [Colin Campbell, Acting CR,
GRTE, 6/16]
94-310 - New River Gorge (West Virginia) - Drowning
Around 4 p.m. on the afternoon of June 14th, K.C., 40, of
Schererville, Indiana, drowned in the New River in the Fayette Station area
while attempting to swim to shore. A group of people had attached a
climbing rope to a beam on the old Fayette Station Bridge and were using it
to swing from the bridge and drop into the river. K.C. donned a climber's
seat harness and kayak helmet, clipped into the rope with a quick release,
swung from the bridge, released, and dropped about 15 feet from the apex of
the swing to the river. He started swimming for shore, about 80 feet away,
but began to struggle and went under with about a third of the distance yet
to go. Rangers arrived about 20 minutes later and conducted a fruitless
hasty search of the river and its banks. The body was eventually recovered
just over a mile downstream. [Rick Brown, DR, NERI, 6/16]
94-311 - Baltimore Washington Parkway (Maryland) - Pursuit; Shot Fired
Early on the afternoon of June 8th, Park Police officers attempted to stop a
Yamaha motorcycle on the parkway for numerous traffic violations. The
operator refused to stop, however, and a pursuit followed. The motorcycle
went off the road onto the median strip south of Route 32 and crashed. The
21-year-old operator attempted to reach for something in his pockets and
refused the orders of two uniformed officers, who told him to cease all
actions. When he refused a second order to cease, one officer fired a round
from his service weapon, striking the man in the left hand. He was
transported by Eagle One, the USPP helicopter, to the Prince George County
Hospital, where he was treated for numerous bruises and abrasions, but no
life threatening injuries. [Lt. J.P. Marshall, USPP, 6/15]
94-312 - Grand Canyon (Arizona) - Pursuit; Confrontation; Four Arrests
On June 9th, several members of the Gypsy Jokers, a motorcycle gang, arrived
in the park. Rangers kept tabs on the group at the request of other
agencies and looked unsuccessfully for a gang member with a felony warrant
against him. While on patrol that evening, rangers observed four of the
bikers travelling eastbound on East Rim Drive at a high rate of speed, twice
passing vehicles in no passing zones. The rangers attempted to stop the
motorcyclists; the biker in the rear of the pack yielded to the patrol car,
but the other three accelerated away at speeds of up to 70 mph. The biker
who had yielded began to follow closely behind the patrol vehicle as the
pursuit continued. At the drive's junction with the Grandview fire tower
road, the three bikers turned into the fire road and turned their
motorcycles around to face the rangers. One of the rangers covered the trio
with a shotgun, while the second ranger contacted the trailing biker, who
had stopped several feet behind the rangers' car. When instructed to get
off his motorcycle, the biker instead reached into a saddle bag; he reached
into the bag three times while at gunpoint before getting down on the ground
as ordered. The four were held at gunpoint until back-up units from the
park and county sheriff's office could arrive. All four were arrested for
reckless driving and failure to yield. A loaded revolver was found on one
of the motorcycles, and several large wrenches and long, sharpened
screwdrivers were found in the saddle bag that the fourth rider had been
reaching into. Rangers later learned that this rider was a new gang member,
and that an officer safety alert had been issued against him because he is
trying to make a name for himself in order to gain acceptance to the gang.
[Steve Martin, RAD/WRO, 6/15]
[More pending incident reports tomorrow....]
FIRE ACTIVITY
1) PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - III
2) LARGE FIRE SUMMARY
State Agency Area Fire 6/16 6/17 Status
CO USFS Routt NF Rock Creek - T2 50 75 NEC
WY State - Guernsey 240 - NR
NM USFS Lincoln NF Bridge - T2 5,380 5,380 CND
Cibola NF Ryan Comp. - T1 24,500 24,720 NEC
Gila NF Pigeon - T1 2,000 2,180 NEC
Spruce 80 100 NEC
BLM Las Cruces Dis. * Organs - 1,200 NEC
UT USFS Manti-Lasal NF Willow Basin - T1 2,205 4,234 CN 6/17
BLM Salt Lake Dis. * Davis Mtn. - 6,500 CN 6/17
CA State - Lakeland 2,400 2,450 CN 6/15
AK State - 412312 - T2 2,000 2,000 NEC
401275 - T2 14,000 17,500 NEC
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 MS - Modified suppression strategy
CL - Controlled MN - Being monitored
CS - Containment strategy NEC - No estimate of containment
CND - Contained CN/CS (date) - Expected date of containment
3) FIRE HIGHLIGHTS -
Organs, Las Cruces District, BLM - The fire is burning mostly on military
lands. Current threats are to a visitor center and Aquirre springs.
4) FIRES YESTERDAY (BY AGENCY) -
NPS BIA BLM FWS States USFS Total
Number 3 16 0 1 53 23 96
Acres Burned 152 10,531 16,938 5,437 2,975 570 36,061
5) COMMITTED RESOURCES -
Crews Engines Helicopters Airtankers Overhead
Federal 152 47 44 10 546
Non-federal 3 11 1 0 34
6) CURRENT SITUATION - Large fire activity continued yesterday in Alaska,
the Rockies, the eastern Great Basin, and the Southwest. Numerous areas in
those areas and California are reporting high to extreme fire indices.
7) OUTLOOK - A red flag watch has been posted for northwest Arizona for
strong gusty winds and low humidity. Fire activity in the West is expected
to continue, as no significant break in current weather patterns has been
forecast; it should moderate in Alaska, however, due to cloudy weather and
showers.
[NIFCC Incident Management Situation Report, 6/17]
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
No field reports today.
OPERATIONAL NOTES
1) Operation Opportunity - The incident management team developing the
central office out placement program under Operation Opportunity is in the
process of developing new central office placement procedures which will
replace those which have been in effect since February. These procedures
will be in effect early during the week of June 20th. The team asks that no
further requests to fill vacancies through the placement system be submitted
until the new procedures are announced.
MEMORANDA
No memoranda.
Prepared by WASO Division of Ranger Activities
Telephone: 202-208-4874
Telefax: 202-208-6756
cc:Mail: WASO Ranger Activities
SkyPager: Emergencies ONLY: 1-800-759-7243, PIN 2404843