NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Thursday, August 29, 2002

INCIDENTS

02-425 - Natchez Trace Parkway (MS/AL/TN) - MVA with Five Fatalities

On the evening of August 24th, park dispatch received a report of an MVA
with injuries and possible fatalities near the Ratliff Ferry
intersection at milepost 123.8 on the parkway. Rangers Joe Mangino and
Barbara Mauller responded along with officials from surrounding agencies
and assisted with triaging the seven occupants of the two vehicles. The
driver and sole occupant of a 1997 Nissan sedan, David Lawrence of
Canton, Mississippi, had been ejected from his vehicle and was
transported to University Medical Center with a serious head injury. The
driver of the second vehicle, L.M. of Jackson, Mississippi, was
transported with unknown injuries. The remaining five occupants of the
second vehicle, all children between the ages of 7 and 11, were killed
in the accident. Two of the deceased were L.M.'s children and three
were the children of a family friend. A preliminary investigation
indicates that Lawrence evidently went through a stop sign at the
intersection and struck the passenger side of L.M.'s vehicle, which
was northbound on the parkway. The force of the collision pushed
L.M.'s Chrysler sedan off the road and pinned it against a tree along
the west shoulder. Alcohol appears to be a contributing factor to the
accident. A multi-agency investigation is currently underway. [Jackie
Henman, ACR, NATR]

02-426 - Prince William FP (VA) - Search

The Prince William County Police Department received a report of a
missing 85-year-old female Alzheimer patient on the afternoon of August
22nd. The woman, Ester Rose, had been last seen at 1:30 p.m. along Route
234, which runs along the northern boundary of the park. Temperatures
during the day rose to 97 degrees and there was high humidity with
little breeze. It was also a code red day for ozone. Ranger Craig
Johnson was notified of the incident at 7:30 p.m. and went to the
command post to offer park assistance. He notified chief ranger Stuart
West, who sought assistance from park volunteers and local fire
department volunteers. The park personnel searched fire roads and
rights-of-way along the northern boundary of the park. At 11:22 p.m.,
one of four search dog teams in use found the missing woman lying down
alongside a large log in thick woods 150 yards inside the park. A
searcher who found the woman said she was almost completely hidden by
the log and nearly invisible in her dark clothes. The lost woman
reported that she tripped on the log and fell to the ground. She said
she was unable to get up, became exhausted, and fell asleep. When found,
the woman was visibly shaken and dehydrated. She was released to family
members. [Stuart West, CR, PRWI]

02-427 - Assateague NS (MD/VA) - Car Clouting Arrest

Four separate car clouting incidents occurred over the past four weeks
in a popular parking area at Assateague, with an estimated loss of
$5,000 to $7,000 in personal property. Ranger Dave Rapp was conducting a
surveillance operation on the lot following these break-ins when he saw
a man looking into parked cars. He then smashed one of the vehicle's
windows with a rock and began taking items from it. NPS and Maryland
State Park Service rangers joined Rapp on scene and placed the car
clouter under arrest. Detectives are looking into the possibility that
he was involved in a series of other car clouts throughout the local
area. [Andy Zavanelli, ACR, ASIS]

[Additional reports pending . . . ]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Situation

Preparedness Level 4

The preparedness level has done down one step. Preparedness Level 5
drops to Preparedness Level 4 when there are no resource shortages or
competition for resources. Fifty rested crews are available for new
fires. No red flag conditions are forecast for the next 24 hours and
favorable weather conditions are forecast for the next three to five day
period.

Initial attack was moderate in the Northwest and eastern Great Basin on
Wednesday and light elsewhere. Four large fires were contained; six new
ones were reported. Some highlights from today's report:

*   There was no change in the size of the Biscuit Fire on the Siskiyou
and Six Rivers NF's yesterday. Containment is still forecast for
Saturday. The pre-evacuation advisory has been lifted for residents of
Agness, Illahe and the Pistol River area.

*   The 150,696 McNally Fire on the Sequoia and Inyo NF's, one of the
biggest fires of the season, has been fully contained.

Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in the following states:

*   Continued from last report - Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho,
Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon,
South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. 
*   Added since last report - Nebraska, South Dakota.
*   Removed since last report - None.

National Resource Commitments

Day             Wed     Thu     Fri     Sat     Sun     Mon     Tue     Wed
Date            8/21    8/22    8/23    8/24    8/25    8/26    8/27    8/28
==============================================================================
                    
Crews           532     567     449     435     399     374     386     366 
Engines         959     936     773     772     746     583     648     678
Helicopters     150     157     138     147     146     130     143     143
Air Tankers     1       1       0       0       1       1       1       3
Overhead        4,591   4,699   4,142   4,006   3,891   3,542   3,787   3,889
Area Commands   3       3       2       2       2       2       2       2   
Type 1 IMT      7       7       7       5       6       7       7       7
Type 2 IMT      7       7       8       8       9       8       8       7
T1/T2 S/IMT *   3       0       0       0       0       0       0       0
Fire Use IMT    3       3       3       3       3       3       3       3
    
* Type 1 and Type 2 state incident management teams
# Information not available

National Fire Warnings and Watches

NICC has posted a FIRE WEATHER WATCH for increasing southwest winds, low
relative humidity and widely scattered dry thunderstorms for eastern
Utah and western Colorado.

Park Fire Situation

Yellowstone NP (WY/MT/ID) - Three new fires - the Doane, Snake and Duck
Fires - are reported. The Duck Fire started when a tree fell on a power
line and the Snake Fire was caused by lightning; both have been
contained. The Doane Fire and tenth-of-an-acre Harebell Fire are being
managed for wildland fire use. The Basin Fire was suppressed when it
failed to meet the criteria for a wildland fire use fire. The Phlox Fire
remains at 3,600 acres with only modest activity on the northwest flank.
The tenth-of-an-acre Flat Mountain Fire is inactive.

Glacier NP (MT) - The Continental and Soldier Fires, both
tenth-of-an-acre wildland fire use fires, continue to smolder.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon NP's (CA) - The Palisade Fire, a new lightning
start being managed for wildland fire benefit, has grown to 150 acres.
The 45-acre Slide Fire and quarter-acre Moraine Fire are also being
managed for wildland fire use.

Yosemite NP (CA) - The Wolf Complex - comprised of the 655-acre Wolf
Fire, 20-acre Lukens Fire and 47-acre Morrison Fire - is being managed
for wildland fire use. Several other small fires, ranging from under two
to ten acres, are also being managed for fire use.

Additional Information

For additional information on all fires, check the following web sites:

Map of fire locations - http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/firemap.html 
Details on all current major fires - http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.pdf 
Fire news and fire year in perspective - http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html. 

[NICC Incident Management Situation Report; Warren Bielenberg, Fire Information Desk, NIFC]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

EMS Update - The National Park Service patient care record form is now
available through Brentwood Warehouse in National Capitol Region. It is
NPS Form 10-342. Parks that provide EMS are encouraged to use this form
as their patient care record, as it will help to ensure that EMS data is
reported annually to regions and WASO and that the information is
complete and accurate. Detailed discussion on the use of this form will
occur at the upcoming EMS training conference in San Diego. [Randy
Coffman, RAD/WASO]

*  *  *  *  *

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

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