On August 20th, rangers received a report of a man walking down the parkway covered in blood.  Rangers David Hynes and Dan Vrchota responded and found a 41-year-old man with stab wounds to his arm, abdomen and neck.  Although he was upright and walking, he did not acknowledge the rangers' presence.  He was taken into custody and treated by the rangers.  A local ambulance transported him to a helispot, where he was airlifted to Charlotte Medical Center.  He underwent surgery to repair his wounds there and is now in stable condition.  His vehicle was found a short distance away in a parkway parking area.  Ranger Dustin Gunderson is leading the investigation.
[Submitted by David G. Bauer, Highlands District Ranger]

A 35-year-old motorcyclist was killed in an accident on North Cascades Highway east of the Ross Lake Trailhead on Sunday. He was heading east on his 2010 Yamaha when he failed to negotiate a left hand curve and ran off the highway. Rangers provided medical treatment with assistance from two medical doctors until the local ALS ambulance arrived.  The man was declared dead at the scene.
[Submitted by Kinsey Shilling, Chief Ranger]

Just before midnight on August 18th, the park received a marine band radio emergency call reporting a missing swimmer in Sandy Cove. A search was begun and continued until 3 a.m., then resumed again at daylight with the assistance of Las Vegas Metro PD's dive team. The body of the missing 46-year-old Las Vegas man was found in 30 feet of water shortly thereafter. He was not wearing a PFD.
[Submitted by Kevin Turner]

National Fire Activity – Preparedness Level 4

NIFC is at PL 4. Thirty-six uncontained large fires are burning nationwide; twenty-one incident management teams are committed.

Fire Weather Forecast

Scattered showers and thunderstorms will develop from the southern mountains of California through the Great Basin, the Southwest and into the central Rockies. Storms in the southern Great Basin and Arizona could produce heavy rain. Cooler and breezy conditions will move into the Northwest and northern Rockies. In the East, scattered showers and thunderstorms will form along a front through the central Plains and upper Midwest. Thunderstorms will also develop in the afternoon from Texas to Virginia. Mild weather will continue across New England and the Great Lakes.

To see a NOAA map of today's critical fire weather areas, click on this link: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/fire_wx/fwdy1.html

Fire Summary (Five Day Trend)

National Resource Commitments (Five Day Trend)

NPS Fire Summaries

Park	State	Fire	Type	Acres	Percent Contain	Est. Full Contain
Yukon - Charley Rivers National Preserve	AK	Marie Creek Fire - ref#146	Wildfire	9,899 acres	100	August 17, 2012
	Latest Narrative: Alaska Fire Service flew the fire and declared it out @ 4:20pm on Friday, August 17th. There was an increase an acreage from the last report by 200 acres.
Yosemite National Park	CA	Cascade Fire	Wildfire	It has slowly grown to 633 acres over more than two months. ... See below for more...	0	Season ending weather event.
	Full Acreage Report: It has slowly grown to 633 acres over more than two months. The growth rate and fire behavior is not expected to change as the fire moves to the north. Latest Narrative: The fire has continued to creep and smolder thorugh the red fir forest and stingers of fuel in open areas of granite.

Details on these NPS fires have been extracted from current NIFC, InciWeb and other reports:

• Reading Fire, Lassen Volcanic NP – The Reading Fire is 100% contained at 28,079 acres. For full details on the fire, including closures and maps, go to the team's InciWeb site (http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3112/ ) or the park's web page (http://www.nps.gov/lavo/index.htm).

For additional information on all fires, check the following National Park Service and NIFC web sites:

NIFC

• Summary of current fires – http://www.nifc.gov/nicc/sitreprt.pdf
• Detailed reports on major fires – http://www.inciweb.org/
• Fire news and fire year in perspective – http://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/nfn.htm
• Map of fire locations – http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/lg_fire2.php

NPS

• Details on current NPS fires – http://www.nps.gov/fire/wildland-fire/fires.cfm
• InsideNPS Fire and Aviation – http://inside.nps.gov/fire
• InsideNPS Structural Fire – http://inside.nps.gov/fire/structuralfire
• NPS Fire and Aviation - http://www.nps.gov/fire

John F. (Rick) Shireman has been selected as Southeast Region's next chief of facility support.  He will lead the region's facility support branches, including the program management, project management, and transportation branches.

Shireman is a 34-year veteran of the National Park Service. He has worked in a variety of disciplines that have given him a broad perspective on park, regional, and national operation of facilities and assets throughout the National Park System.  He has served in technical maintenance positions at Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Big Bend National Parks, as well as in supervisory facility management positions at Bandelier National Monument, Grand Canyon National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, and the Intermountain Regional Office.

Shireman was the national training and development manager for facility management and maintenance operations for four years in the NPS Washington Office in Washington, D.C.  He later served as the first Servicewide FMSS manager during the initial development and implementation of that program.

Shireman has also served as superintendent of Chickasaw National Recreation Area and the Southern Arizona Office, state coordinator for Arizona, and assistant regional director for program analysis and review in Intermountain Region. He is currently the branch supervisor for line item construction for Intermountain Region.

 "I am excited about joining the Southeast Regional Office team," said Shireman. "I am looking forward to working with the rest of the staff in Atlanta to provide facility management assistance to all the parks in the Southeast Region."

Shireman is married to another career NPS employee, Sarah Craighead.
[Submitted by Bill Reynolds]

Intermountain Regional Office has issued an announcement for an environmental protection specialist.

Click on the link below for a copy of the announcement with full details on duties and procedures for applying.

It closes on August 31st.
 More Information...

NPS serious incident submission standards can be found at the following web site:

http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id;=8728&lv;=2&pgid;=3504

All reports should now be submitted via this automated system.