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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT BLACKBERRY EDITION Wednesday, August 9, 2006 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS Bighorn Canyon NRA Rangers Assist At Structural Fire With Three Fatalities At 2 a.m. on August 6th, rangers were notified that a local trout shop and motel in the town of Fort Smith were on fire. Rangers arriving on scene found that the motel, a large propane tank and two vehicles were fully engulfed in flames and that the fire was spreading to the adjacent trout shop. Early reports from the owners of the motel indicated that three motel guests were unaccounted for and presumed to be in their room. Due to the limited resources available and the fact that the structure was fully engulfed in flames and starting to collapse, firefighters were unable to enter the building. Rangers assisted with scene security while the Fort Smith Volunteer Fire Department, Bighorn County Fire Department, sheriff's deputies and Bureau of Indian Affairs officers arrived. Firefighters battled the fire throughout the night, attempting to stop the blaze from spreading from the motel and trout shop to the convenience store next door, but all three businesses were lost. Other fire departments, including the Crow Agency Fire Department and Crow Forestry Wildland Fire Department, were called in to assist. On the following morning, rangers assisted the Bighorn County Sheriff's Office, the FBI and ATF in their efforts to find the cause of the fire and to locate the three people who were presumed to have died in the fire. Although their remains were found, the cause of the fire is still unknown. [Linden Schlenker, Chief Ranger] Delaware Water Gap NRA Death Of Park Employee Seasonal maintenance worker George Ratliff, 51, suffered a major heart attack while at work on Monday, August 7th. He'd just finished assisting ranger Mike Fernalld in removing a rope swing from a ravine at Childs Park when he was stricken. Fernalld, who is a qualified EMT, rendered immediate assistance and called for an ambulance. Local EMS and ALS units responded, but resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at Bon Secours Hospital in Port Jervis, New York. George had worked seasonally for the roads and trails branch of the maintenance division since 1997. He was well-liked for his sense of humor and easy rapport with visitors. A viewing is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Friday, August 11th, at the Bushkill Reformed Church, followed by a service at 2 p.m. [Malcolm Wilbur, Acting Superintendent] Great Smoky Mountains NP Park Medic Saves Life Of Anaphylactic Maintenance Worker A park maintenance worker was stung by at least two bees or wasps on the morning of August 8th and experienced a severe anaphylactic reaction. The worker was cutting grass near the Smokemont riding stables with a group of other maintenance workers when the incident occurred. Immediately after being stung, he became nauseous and sat down at a picnic table, then asked for help from his co-workers when he began having trouble breathing. He became unconscious almost immediately, causing his co-workers to call park dispatch for assistance. Ranger/park medic Joe Pond was the first on scene. He found that the victim conscious but still in respiratory distress, with bronchial constriction, nausea, hives, flushed skin, and profuse sweating. Following medical protocol, Pond administered oxygen, epinepherine and diphenahydramine (benadryl). The worker was transported to Cherokee Hospital, then transferred to Harrah's Regional Hospital in Sylva, North Carolina. He is currently in stable condition. This is the eighth incident of bee stings causing anaphylaxis in the past three weeks. Five of these incidents involved severe reactions in which injections of epinephrine and other drugs were required. [Rick Brown, Acting Chief Ranger] Blue Ridge Parkway Arrest For Attempted Murder During the early morning hours of July 30th, rangers received a report from Buncombe County advising that there'd been an accident with property damage only near milepost 460. As the responding ranger approached the scene, he saw a man walking along the roadside, contacted him, and found that he had a loaded firearm. He was taken into custody and found to be an undocumented alien. The weapon was found to have been stolen. At the accident scene, the ranger found a bullet hole in the vehicle's roof and a woman hiding in the woods nearby. The woman said that she and the arrested man had had a fight about the vehicle and that he produced the weapon and threatened her. She pushed him away and ran for the woods; he fired at her three times. The woman said that she'd remained hidden until the ranger arrived. The man remains in jail. The U.S. Attorney's Office is considering charges and immigration officials have been notified. [Tim Francis, Pisgah District Ranger] Blue Ridge Parkway Traffic Safety Enforcement Operation The park's Criminal Interdiction Team (CIT) assisted Plateau District rangers with a traffic safety operation during the period from July 27th to July 30th. The CIT, a group comprised of one ranger from each of the park's four districts plus a supervisor, provides assistance to districts as needed as a force multiplier. The team conducted 153 car stops over the period and issued 129 traffic and vehicle safety warnings. They also made 18 controlled substance cases (one of which developed into a drug distribution case and an arrest) and four DUI arrests and issued five open container violations and two driver's license violations. All of the car stops during this operation were for moving traffic offenses or safety violations - no checkpoints were used. The team was deployed to augment district staff during a weekend of high traffic flow due to the Floyd Fest, a three-day outdoor music festival just off park lands. About 10,000 people attended. [Jon Murphy, Plateau District Ranger; John Garrison, Chief Ranger] OTHER NEWS Other news of interest from today's edition of InsideNPS, which can be found at this address if your inside the NPS ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/" http://inside.nps.gov/) and at this address if you're outside the NPS ( HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://www.nps.gov/applications/digest/). Note that not all articles that appear in the former make it into the latter: Denali NP - New dinosaur tracks found in park. Gettysburg NMP - Statement from the superintendent on the upcoming KKK rally there. Cape Cod NS - Announcement on TV show tonight on an unsolved murder that occurred in the park. * * * * * Prepared by Visitor and Resource Protection, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA. --- ### --- |