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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Tuesday, May 29, 2007 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS Zion NP Three Concessions Employees Injured In Accident Rangers were called out to a report of a rollover accident with injuries in Zion Canyon shortly after midnight on May 24th. Responding rangers found that the five occupants - all concessions employees returning from St. George - had gotten out of the vehicle on their own and that all but the driver had hitched a ride to the lodge up the canyon. The driver, C.G., 47, was uninjured but arrested and charged with driving under the influence. Park and Springdale EMS units transported three of the passengers to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. One was later found to have suffered a fractured back in the accident. Canyon district ranger Kevin Killian was IC. [Bonnie Schwartz, Chief Ranger] Lake Mead NRA Boat Explosion Injures Four Men At Marina Four men were injured, one critically, when a 30-foot boat exploded after it was refueled at the Las Vegas Boat Harbor Marina on Lake Mead last Thursday. The park learned of the explosion around 5 p.m. when calls came in from the marina requesting emergency personnel. Two of the men were airlifted to an area hospital, one with critical injuries and the other with serious injuries. The other two men were taken by ambulance to an area hospital with minor burns. All of the men are from southern Nevada. The cause of the explosion is under investigation. [Roxanne Dey, Public Affairs Officer] Yosemite NP Seriously Injured Climber Rescued From El Capitan The park received a 911 call reporting a climbing fall on El Capitan around 9:30 a.m. on the morning of Thursday, May 17th. Initial reports were that the climber - A.S., a German national - had sustained a very serious injury and that a long blood trail could be seen below the ledge where he was awaiting aid. SAR personnel were paged and efforts to find and reach him began immediately. A.S. was climbing the seventeenth pitch of the Nose Route on the south face of El Capitan when the accident occurred. He was leapfrogging his protection when he fell about 100 feet, striking Eagle Ledge during his fall and coming to rest ten feet below the ledge, hanging from the climbing rope that had ultimately arrested his fall. With the assistance of a California Highway Patrol helicopter, rescuers were on the four-foot-long by eighteen-inch-wide ledge within three hours of the call. A.S. was packaged, flown to El Cap Meadow, then transferred to a waiting air ambulance. A.S. sustained injuries, including fractures to a femur, three vertebrae and his jaw. Rob Lewis was IC. [Charles Cuvelier, Deputy Chief Ranger] OTHER NEWS The following stories (among others) can be read on either the InsideNPS web site (if you are within the National Park Service) or at the InsideNPS public ‘news digest' site (if you are outside of the NPS). The web sites appear below: Hawaii Volcanoes NP - A magnitude 4.7 quake, followed by a 4.1 aftershock, shook Kilauea on May 24th. These earthquakes are the largest so far in a flurry of quakes that have occurred in the upper east and southwest rift zones since May 12th. Glacier NP - Gary Brandow, the park's administrative officer, is retiring on June 1st with nearly 40 years of service in the National Park Service. To see the above articles, go to InsideNPS ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/" http://inside.nps.gov/) or NPS Digest ( HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/). For NPS incident reporting standards, go to HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363 * * * * * Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov, 570-426-2430). --- ### --- |