NPS Morning Report - Friday, July 12, 2002



                           NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                              MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Friday, July 12, 2002

INCIDENTS

02-301 - Zion NP (UT) - Concession Employee Charged with Assault

Concession employee A.W.C. has been charged with aggravated
assault, criminal damage to property and public intoxication in the wake of
an incident that took place in early June. A.W.C. had spent a night and
morning consuming a fifth of liquor and a twelve-pack of beer. He returned
to his concession dorm room early in the morning and awakened his roommate,
who went to get security. When the man returned, A.W.C. reportedly attacked
him with a pair of pliers, hitting him twice on the head. The man ran for
help, with A.W.C. pursuing. A.W.C.'s roommate got away, after which A.W.C.
punched his right hand through a window, then returned to their room and
trashed it, wiping his blood on all four walls. A.W.C.'s roommate was taken
to Dixie Regional Medical Center, where a doctor closed his head wound with
nine staples. A.W.C., who was also taken to the center to have his hand
stitched, became violent while in the hospital and had to be physically
subdued. Rangers arrested him and ran a blood alcohol test on him that
revealed a BAC of 0.219. A.W.C. was bound over for trial on one felony and
three misdemeanor charges at a preliminary hearing on Friday, June 28th.
[Brent McGinn, ZION, 7/1; newspaper article at thespectrum.com]

02-301 - Great Smoky Mountains NP (NC/TN) - Special Event

EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman and Senator Bill Frist (R-TN)
visited the park on July 1st to discuss air quality issues. They stopped at
the park's Sugarlands Visitor Center to look at several real-time air
quality displays, then proceeded to Clingman's Dome, the highest acid
deposition and air quality monitoring station in the eastern US, where they
and regional media were briefed by park staff on the impacts of poor air
quality on human health, vegetation, soils and water quality. They also
discussed an on-going NPS/EPA study on the impacts of high levels of ozone
on human health involving high elevation day hikers in the park and
answered questions from the press. Several organized groups were issued
permits for public assembly demonstrations during the visit. Demonstrations
were held at both the Sugarlands Visitor Center and at Clingman's Dome.
Prior to the visit, the park had received information that some groups or
individuals were planning to disrupt the visit, and that at least one would
attempt to throw a pie in Whitman's face. Despite these threats, the
demonstrations were peaceful and kept under control by park staff. The
visit was managed under ICS; North District DR Rick Brown was IC. (CRO,
GRSM, 7/2]

02-303 - Blue Ridge Parkway (VA/NC) - Suicide

Fishermen on the Roanoke River found the body of a man along the river bank
just below the Roanoke River Bridge on the evening of July 2nd. Evidence
indicated that he jumped from the 170-foot high parkway bridge. The victim
was identified as D.S., the husband of K.S., 52,
who allegedly died from an accidental fall from a cliff within the park
near milepost 242 on May 31st (02-216). That death had been reported by
D.S., who said that he'd left his wife for a short period of
time and that he was unable to find her when he returned and looked for
her. She'd fallen 80 feet to her death. The park and FBI are investigating
her death; the park and Roanoke County PD are investigating his death.
[John Garrison, LES, BLRI, 7/3]

02-304 - Shenandoah NP (VA) - Possible Suicide

On the afternoon of July 1st, visitors reported finding what appeared to be
a suicide victim on the Appalachian Trail near Skyline Drive in the North
District.  Responding ranger Todd Remaley found the body of a 49-year-old
Woodbridge, Virginia, man at the scene. Notifications to the family were
made with the assistance of staff from Prince William Forest Park. Although
the medical examiner initially called the fatality a suicide, the case
remains under investigation. [Ginny Rousseau, CR, SHEN, 7/2]

02-305 - Great Smoky Mountains (NC/TN) - Attempted Suicide

Park dispatch received a frantic call on the evening of June 28th from a
woman reporting that she was at her husband's vehicle on the Foothills
Parkway and that she'd found a suicide note from him inside. The vehicle
was parked near an unauthorized trail, and she told dispatchers that she
was going to head up the trail in an effort to find him. Ranger Michael
Nash, SA Jeff Carlisle and a local ambulance service responded. About 15
minutes after the first call, the woman called dispatch again via cell
phone and reported that she'd found her husband hanging from a tree. She'd
cut him down with a knife that he'd left on the ground by the tree, and
he'd resumed breathing. The ambulance crew arrived within minutes and took
over medical treatment. He was taken to the road, a distance of about 50
yards, then conveyed to a hospital. Investigation revealed that the victim
had been despondent over his impending divorce from his wife, and that the
divorce was being forced on him because he was still married to another
woman. He's expected to make a full recovery. [CRO, GRSM, 7/1]

02-306 - Saguaro NP (AZ) - Attempted Suicide

The park was notified of a missing woman with a history of depression at 5
p.m. on July 9th. The woman's vehicle was found parked next to the
Wildhorse trailhead in the Rincon Mountain District. Ranger Carin Harvey
met with county deputies at the trailhead and immediately solicited
assistance from Southern Arizona Search and Rescue Association (SARA) and a
county helicopter. The 62-year-old woman had left the house earlier that
day; she was reported to be under the care of a psychiatrist and in
possession of prescription medications. Augmenting the search effort were
volunteers and members of the sheriff's posse. The woman was spotted by
helicopter on the Tanque Verde Guest Ranch property adjacent to the park at
6 p.m. Although unconscious, she was breathing and had a strong pulse and
was responsive to painful stimuli. The helicopter landed nearby with
paramedics. The woman's body was cooled with water and she received ALS
support, then was flown to a hospital. It's believed that she would not
have survived much longer due to the heat (103 degrees) and the numerous
pills that she'd consumed. A suicide note was found next to her. [Carin
Harvey, ADR, SAGU, 7/9]

[Additional reports pending. . . . ]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Situation

Preparedness Level 5

Initial attack was moderate in the Great Basin and Southwest yesterday and
light elsewhere. Four of the 237 newly-reported fires became large fires;
two others were contained.

Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in 18 states: Arizona,
California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska,
Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas,
Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Priorities for large fires in the Southwest, the Rockies and the Great
Basin are being established by the multi-agency coordinating groups for
those areas.

For a map showing the locations of current major fires , click on
http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/firemap.html ; for details on all major fires
currently burning, click on http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.pdf or
http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html.

National Resource Commitments

                  Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun   Mon   Tue   Wed   Thu
Date              7/4   7/5   7/6   7/7   7/8   7/9   7/10  7/11

Crews             389   ***   329   276   264   207   197   178
Engines           768   ***   632   551   585   444   329   346
Helicopters       135   ***   145   137   141   119   110   93
Air Tankers       1     ***   1     3     4     4     1     0
Overhead          3,001 ***   2,877 2,890 2,711 2,141 1,934 1,536
Area Commands     2     ***   0     0     0     0     0     0
Type 1 IMT        9     ***   7     4     3     3     3     1
Type 2 IMT        15    ***   10    8     7     7     7     9
Fire Use IMT            1     ***   1     2     2     1     2     2

*** - Report not available

National Fire Warnings and Watches

NICC has issued three RED FLAG WARNINGS and three FIRE WEATHER WATCHES for
today:

•     A RED FLAG WARNING for high temperatures, very low relative humidity
and high Haines indices for much of southern Idaho
•     A RED FLAG WARNING for isolated to scattered and mostly dry
thunderstorms for the northern Sierra Nevada and southern   Cascade
Mountains
•     A RED FLAG WARNING for dry thunderstorms, high temperatures, low
relative humidity and high Haines indices for southern O    regon and
eastern Washington
•     A FIRE WEATHER WATCH for dry lightning and high Haines indices for
northwest, central and eastern Oregon
•     A FIRE WEATHER WATCH for dry lightning for the southern Sierra Nevada
and Tehachapi Mountains
•     A FIRE WEATHER WATCH for dry thunderstorms, record high temperatures
and low relative humidity for northwestern and w      est-central Nevada

Park Fire Situation

The park is dealing with three significant fires:

•     The Broad Fire (5,120 acres), located six miles east of Mount
Washburn on the east side of the Yellowstone River, continues to  burn
actively. A large column of smoke was visible from the fire late yesterday
afternoon. Bucket drops were planned for
      yesterday, but no crews were dispatched to the fire due to extreme
fire behavior. A fire use management team (Cook) has been
      assigned to the fire, but a Type 1 team (Frye) is on order.
•     The Divide Lake Fire (10 acres), located adjacent to Highway 191 near
milepost 21, has been completely contained. Two crews
      continue mop-up operations.
•     The Robinson Fire (quarter acre) is about a half mile from the west
boundary in the southeast corner of the park. Six firefighters    have been
committed.


Some trails and backcountry campsites near the Broad Fire have been closed
due to unpredictable fire behavior and concerns for public safety. The
following have been closed: Specimen Ridge Trail, Agate Creek Trail,
Yellowstone River Picnic Area Trail, Crystal Creek Trail, and the Wapiti
Lake Trail east of the junction with Ribbon Lake Trail. Travel north of
campsite 51B and Fern Lake and north of Fern Lake Patrol Cabin has been
prohibited.

Shenandoah NP (VA) - The Rocky Top II Fire (775 acres) continues to burn in
dead pine, rhododendron and leaf litter within the park. No reports on the
fire were received yesterday, either by NICC or via the NPS. A total of 200
firefighters and overhead personnel (including nine crews) have been
committed.

[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 7/12; Public Affairs,
Yellowstone NP, 7/11]

                               *  *  *  *  *

Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation
and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.

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