- Subject: NPS Morning Report - Thursday, August 10, 1995
- Date: Thurs, 10 Aug 1995
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
To: All National Park Service Areas and Offices
From: Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office
Day/Date: Thursday, August 10, 1995
Broadcast: By 1000 ET
INCIDENTS
95-502 - Kalaupapa (Hawaii) - Special Event
Interment ceremonies were held on July 22nd for a relic of the beatified
Belgian Catholic priest Joseph De Veuster, known as Blessed Damien. Damien
served those inflicted with leprosy in Kalaupapa from 1873 to 1889, when he
died of the disease and was buried in Kalawao. Damien's remains were exhumed
in 1936 and interred in his home town in Belgium. He was beatified by Pope
John Paul in June. Over 530 visitors attended the reinterment ceremony. An
estimated 140 of them hiked two and a half miles down the 1,600-foot trail into
the park. The park's staff was assisted by rangers from all of Hawaii's
national parks and representatives from state DNR, local police and fire
agencies, DOT and the FAA. There were five minor medical incidents, two minor
aircraft mishaps (it took over 100 flights to transport all parties to the
site), and one minor accident during the event. [Eric Beckert, IC, KALA]
95-503 - Little River Canyon (Alabama) - Search for Downed Aircraft
Just after noon on August 8th, several reports were received that a small plane
had gone down in the north end of the park. Reporting parties said that they'd
heard a small plane overhead, that the engine began sputtering, and that it had
then struck trees. A multi-agency search was begun, but ended at dark with no
signs of the plane found. Investigators found no reports of missing or overdue
planes, so the search was discontinued. [CR, LIRI]
95-504 - Crater Lake (Oregon) - Rescue
Two girls were walking their dogs near the edge of Annie Creek Canyon on the
evening of August 8th when they lost their footing and slid between 80 and 130
feet into canyon. They managed to secure footholds and remain in their
locations until rangers arrived on scene to tie them into rappel lines. One of
the girls was lowered to the bottom of the drainage, where she was treated for
extensive abrasions; the other was lifted to the top of the slope via a raising
system. Both girls were later released to their parents, who were camped in
the Mazama campground. The dogs were not on leash and the girls and their pets
were in an unauthorized area at the time of the incident. [Uwe Nehring, DR,
CRLA]
95-505 - Kalaupapa (Hawaii) - Rescue
On August 7th, two members from a group of seven people who were kayaking the
north shore of Moloka'i advised the park that one of their kayaks had sunk and
that its occupant, J.H., was stranded in rough seas about a mile west
of the Kalaupapa Peninsula. Ranger Erick Beckert and grounds crew worker
William Kalipi responded to the area in the park zodiac and rescued J.H.
from the water. J.H. reported that he'd been in the water for over two
hours. The incident occurred in breaking seas of over ten feet and winds of 30
knots. [Eric Beckert, KALA]
95-506 - Grand Teton (Wyoming) - Climbing Fatality
M.P., 25, of Portland, Oregon, slipped on a steep snowfield while
descending Grand Teton on the afternoon of August 1st and fell to her death.
M.P. and her partner, C.R., had just completed a climb of the Owen-
Spalding route. Upon stepping onto the snow from a rocky area below the Upper
Saddle, M.P. lost her footing, slid about 60 feet, went over a low angle rocky
area, and fell another 40 feet into a moat. She was wearing crampons and had
an ice axe, but was unable to self-arrest. M.P. died from head and neck
trauma suffered in the fall. [Colin Campbell, CR, GRTE]
95-507 - City of Rocks (Idaho) - Climbing Fatality
E.T., 19, of Wheaton, Illinois, fell 200 feet to her death while being
lowered off the 5.7 Cruel Shoes route on Stripe Rock on August 9th. According
to her father, who was on belay, she apparently led the second pitch too high
before being lowered, and the rope was not long enough for a full descent. The
rope ran out of the belay device, and she fell to her death. [Wallace Keck,
CR, CIRO]
95-508 - Death Valley (California) - MVA with Serious Injury
Late on the evening of August 7th, 45-year-old F.T. lost control of
his tractor trailer on a curve west of Panamint Springs Resort on CA 190, went
off the road, and plunged 200 feet down a slope. A passenger in the cab
crawled out and got a ride to Panamint Springs to report the incident. A local
fire department responded and called for assistance. Six rangers responded
with technical rescue gear and extrication tools. It took about three hours to
extricate F.T. from the truck. Rangers started IV fluids and transported
F.T. to a waiting helicopter, which took him to a hospital in Las Vegas. He
is reported to be in a coma with a cervical spine fracture. [Mark Maciha, DR,
South District, DEVA]
95-509 - Death Valley (California) - Heat Stroke; Possible Suicide Attempt
N.A., 54, was found on his back about 50 yards from the Badwater Road
near Furnace Creek on August 8th. N.A. was incoherent, but was moving his
arms and legs. Rangers and a local deputy brought him to the road and began an
IV. N.A. became combative and remained so throughout his transport to Death
Valley Junction to meet a medevac helicopter. N.A. is now on a ventilator,
and is reported to have a diminished level of consciousness. His vehicle was
later found nearby; it contained evidence indicating that this may have been a
suicide attempt. Despite the high heat in Death Valley at this time of the
year (it reached 122 degrees on the day N.A. was found), there are very few
heat stroke cases in the park. [Mark Maciha, DR, South District, DEVA]
95-510 - Wolf Trap Farm (Virginia) - Events
On the evenings of July 31st and August 1st, sell-out crowds of over 7,000
people - plus a couple of hundred unauthorized visitors without tickets -
attended concerts by Santana and Jeff Beck at the Filene Center. Park staff
and Park Police officers were extremely busy through the evening. Officers
made 21 drug arrests, one liquor law arrest, and one arrest for an assault on a
police officer. Problems and complaints included unauthorized sales, overflow
parking, fence jumping, distribution of literature, ticket scalping, and
several first aid cases, including one suspected drug overdose. A total of 62
cubic yards of trash was collected by park maintenance. [William Crockett, CR,
WOTR]
FIRE ACTIVITY
1) NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level III
2) LARGE FIRE SUMMARY
% Est
State Area Fire IMT 8/9 8/10 Con Con
ID Boise NF Lakes T1 1,000 1,000 70 CN 8/11
UT State Camp William -- 3,200 3,300 70 CN 8/10
S.L. City Dis. Puddle/Lake T2 18,000 22,700 80 CN 8/10
CA Klamath NF Pony T2 1,673 1,950 75 CN 8/16
Riverside RU Verbenia ST 23,455 23,455 90 CN 8/10
San Bernadino RU * Sugarloaf -- - 150 100 CND
AZ State Black Hill -- 1,200 2,800 50 CN 8/10
* Hill Top -- - 400 45 CN 8/11
Phoenix Dis. Old Baldy -- 1,100 1,730 100 CND
* Whitlock -- - 972 80 CN 8/12
Coronado NF * Fagen -- - 190 85 CN 8/10
OR Deschutes NF * Wind -- - 180 50 CN 8/9
NV Humboldt NF Battle Creek T2 8,810 11,000 60 CN 8/11
State South Fork Cx T1 1,103 1,300 100 CND
WY Rock Spr. Dis. Johnson Draw -- 350 600 100 CND
Rawlins Dis. * West Cotton -- - 400 20 CN 8/10
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 31 11 0 91 52 186
Acres Burned 0 478 5,605 0 1,811 430 8,324
4) COMMITTED RESOURCES -
Crews Engines Helicopters Airtankers Overhead
Federal 108 137 47 8 419
Non-federal 27 25 0 0 23
5) COMPARATIVE SUMMARY -
CY 1995 Five Year Average
Year-to-Date Year-to-Date
Number of Fires - U.S. 57,163 51,633
Acres Burned - U.S. 1,366,818 2,042,026
Number of Fires - Canada 6,625 -
Acres Burned - Canada 14,698,547 -
6) FIRE NARRATIVES -
* Camp William, Utah State - Crews were kept from the area due to the presence
of unexploded artillery rounds.
* Battle Creek, Humboldt NF - Unexpected dry lightning and gusty winds spawned
interior island fires and caused extreme fire behavior yesterday afternoon.
7) SITUATION - Initial attack continued at fairly high levels in the Southwest
and northern California yesterday, but was moderate through the rest of the
West. Significant progress was made on meeting containment targets on most
large fires.
8) OUTLOOK - A red flag warning has been posted for strong west winds for the
east slopes of the Cascades in Washington. Fire weather watches are up for
strong downslope winds for the east slopes of the Sierras in northern
California and for strong south to southwest winds, low humidity and possible
dry lightning in Nevada and Utah. Moderate fire activity is expected to
continue where warnings and watches have been posted.
[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 8/10]
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
No field reports today.
OPERATIONAL NOTES
1) News Show - On the evening of August 17th, "48 Hours", the CBS news program,
will run a show on recreation on public lands and tort responsibility which was
taped in Zion in June. The show has to do in part with the Kolob Canyon
incident (93-510) in which two leaders of an Explorer group from Salt Lake City
drowned while on a four-day hike into the park through Zion Narrows.
2) Tickborne Disease - A few days ago, the Morning Report contained an entry
regarding HGE (human granulocytic ehrlichiosis), a newly identified tickborne
disease. WASO Public Health has since provided additional information, drawn
from an article which appeared in a recent edition of the Washington Times. At
least 112 Americans have been stricken by the disease since it was first
identified at a clinic in Minnesota. Four have resulted in deaths. Almost all
of the cases reported to date have been in Minnesota and Wisconsin; there have
also been seven or eight in New York and one each in Connecticut, Maryland,
Florida, Arkansas and California. HGE and Lyme disease can be confused because
they both have flu-like symptoms. HGE, however, can be more difficult to
diagnose, because it is not accompanied by the characteristic rash that
develops around the tick bite in Lyme cases. HGE can be cured in 10 to 14 days
using the antibiotics tetracycline or docycycline. Marked improvement appears
just 24 hours after treatment begins. One of the four who died developed an
inflamed heart muscle and suffered a fatal heart attack; the remaining three
were elderly or suffered from other serious medical problems. Blood drawn from
up to 30% of patients diagnosed with Lyme disease and retested by doctors for
HGE showed evidence of exposure to the organism that causes HGE as well as the
bacterium that causes Lyme. Evidence suggests that people can be
simultaneously infected by both organisms.
OBSERVATIONS
"We have been compared to the military forces because of our dedication and
esprit de corps. In a sense this is true. We do act as guardians of our
country's land. Our National Park Service uniform which we wear with pride
does command the respect of our fellow citizens. We have the spirit of
fighters, not as a destructive force, but as a power for good. With this
spirit, each of us is an integral part of the preservation of the magnificent
heritage we have been given, so that centuries from now people of our world, or
perhaps of other worlds, may see and understand what is unique to our earth,
never changing, eternal."
Farewell message to
the Service, Horace
M. Albright, 1933
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Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation and
support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.