- Subject: NPS Morning Report - Monday, June 26, 1995
- Date: Mon, 26 Jun 1995
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
To: All National Park Service Areas and Offices
From: Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office
Day/Date: Monday, June 26, 1995
Broadcast: By 1000 ET
INCIDENTS
95-330 - Glen Canyon (Utah) - Mentally Unbalanced Person
On June 22nd, rangers received a report of a man acting strangely in the
Stanton Creek primitive camping area near Bullfrog. The man, later identified
as M.C., had asked campers for food and a place to sleep. They provided
M.C. with food, but refused to let him stay in their camp. M.C. then told
the campers that he was in the Bullfrog area to "destroy a nucleus of
cannibals", and that everyone there was in danger. Rangers subsequently found
M.C. locked in one of the area's portable outhouses. M.C. told them that
he was an angel who had been dispatched to Bullfrog to rid the area of "a
nucleus of purple cannibal people." He further stated that he'd been able to
sleep only 50 hours in the previous month because of his mission, and repeated
the warning that everyone in the area was in danger from the purple cannibal
people. He could not explain how he'd gotten to the area, or how he was going
to carry out his mission; he had neither money nor transportation. M.C. was
taken to the Bullfrog detention facility, where he agreed to voluntarily commit
himself for a mental evaluation in St. George, Utah. He was transported out of
the park the next morning. [Tomie Lee, CR, GLCA, 6/23]
95-331 - Mount Rainier (Washington) - Bomb Threat; Attempted Abduction; Pursuit
The concession manager at the Paradise Inn called the park's communications
center on the evening of June 24th to report a disturbance in the hotel's
lobby. J.R., 34, of Spanaway, Washington, had entered the hotel
through the kitchen and had begun acting irrationally, shouting and threatening
to blow up the mountain. J.R. was escorted from the inn by the manager.
When he reached the parking lot, J.R. attempted to abduct a park visitor and
force him into a vehicle. The visitor was able to break free, however, and
fled back to the inn. J.R. then broke into a guest's car and attempted to
hot-wire it before leaving the area in his own vehicle. Rangers pursued him,
but J.R. refused to stop. The chase continued outside the park until local
officers stopped J.R. by flattening his vehicle's tires on a highway near
Eatonville. J.R. then held two wires, claiming they were attached to a bomb,
and commandeered a state patrol vehicle in an attempt to flee the area.
Troopers again flattened the vehicle's tires, and were able to subdue and
arrest J.R.. Due to earlier threats to blow something up and the fact that
wires and blasting caps were recovered at the scene of the arrest, Paradise Inn
guests were evacuated to the concession facilities in the visitor center until
the inn could be secured. Members of the explosive ordnance disposal team from
Fort Lewis searched the inn and the Rainier Mountaineering guide house. No
bomb was found, and visitors were permitted to return to their rooms. J.R.
is being held in the county jail until charges can be filed against him. The
FBI is assisting in the investigation. [Lance Gillispie, MORA, 6/25]
95-332 - Blue Ridge (North Carolina/Virginia) - Flooding
Heavy rains caused flooding at the Otter Creek campground on the evening of
June 22nd. About 25 visitors and their vehicles were stranded by the creek's
rising waters. At the tim of the report, crews were trying to reach them. The
campground's fee kiosk was flooded, and the bridge to the area was underwater.
[Bill Spring, RAD/SERO, 6/23]
[More pending incident reports tomorrow...]
FIRE ACTIVITY
1) NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level II
2) LARGE FIRE SUMMARY
% Est
State Area Fire IMT 6/23 6/26 Con Con
AZ San Carlos Agency * Calvary -- - 1,000 0 NEC
Phoenix District * White Canyon -- - 5,000 0 NEC
Colorado River
Agency * Lost Lake -- - 1,800 35 NEC
MN Superior NF Gunflint T2 700 2,922 50 NEC
CA San Diego RU Butterfield ST/T2 7,083 7,083 70 CN 6/26
HEADING NOTES:
Fire * = newly reported fire (on this report). Cx = complex.
IMT T1 = Type 1; T2 = Type II; ST1 = state Type 1; ST2 = state Type 2.
% Con Percent of fire contained.
Est Con Estimated containment date. NEC = no estimated date of
containment; CND = fully contained; NR = no report.
3) FIRES YESTERDAY -
NPS BIA BLM FWS States USFS Total
Number 1 13 4 0 27 29 74
Acres Burned 1 1,012 5,501 0 142 6 6,662
4) COMMITTED RESOURCES -
Crews Engines Helicopters Airtankers Overhead
Federal 34 54 14 10 146
Non-federal 7 4 3 0 133
5) COMPARATIVE SUMMARY -
CY 1995 Five Year Average
Year-to-Date Year-to-Date
Number of Fires 41,714 37,965
Acres Burned 669,667 669,516
6) SITUATION - Initial attack and large fire activity continued yesterday in
the Southwest, South and East. Large fires in Canada burned another 390,000
acres (about 2,646,000 acres have burned there to date).
7) OUTLOOK - Fire activity is expected to continue in the Southwest, southern
California and the East.
[NIFCC Incident Management Situation Report, 6/26]
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
No field reports today.
OPERATIONAL NOTES
No notes.
OBSERVATIONS
Today's quote eloquently expresses the importance of protecting battlefields,
and, but extension, other historic sites. It was passed along by Russ Smith;
other prior contributors to "Observations" have been Jake Hoogland, Paul
Schullery, Debbie Liggett, and Jon Jarvis.
"In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms
change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for
the vision-place of souls. And reverent men and women from afar, and
generations that know us not and we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and
by whom great things were suffered, and done for them, shall come to this
deathless field, to ponder and dream; and lo! the shadow of the mighty presence
shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their
souls."
General Joshua Lawrence
Chamberlain, Gettysburg,
October 3, 1889
[Do you have a favorite quote about the NPS? If so, send it along for possible
inclusion in a future Morning Report...]
Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation and
support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.
Telephone: 202-208-4874
Telefax: 202-208-6756
cc:Mail: WASO Ranger Activities
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