- Subject: NPS Morning Report - Friday, August 23, 1996
- Date: Fri, 23 Aug 1996
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
To: All National Park Service Areas and Offices
From: Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office
Day/Date: Friday, August 23, 1996
Broadcast: By 1000 ET
INCIDENTS
96-483 - Devils Tower (Wyoming) - Climbing Fatality
J.P., 21, of Roscoe, Illinois, an experienced climber who had
previously ascended Devils Tower, was killed in a climbing accident on August
20th. J.P. was lead climbing about 500 feet up the side of the tower on
the Bailey Direct finish to the 5.6 (moderately difficult) Durrance route
when he fell over 50 feet, landing on a ledge and sustaining massive head
injuries. J.P. was climbing with his father, N.P., at the
time. Neither was wearing a climbing helmet. A climber/paramedic on a pitch
below J.P. reached the ledge within minutes. Rangers were able to send
up a park radio and EMS gear to the paramedic via ropes. J.P. expired
about 30 minutes after the accident. Ranger Chris Holbeck ascended a fixed
line 450 feet to the ledge and helped console the father and lower him to the
base of the climb. Holbeck then rappelled down with the victim, who was
transported out by the park's rescue team. Ranger Robert Moelder was strike
team leader for the incident. Holbeck and Moelder climbed the mountain the
following day to conduct an investigation. They determined that J.P.
took a 100 foot leader fall and pulled out one piece of protection, a number
five wired rock stopper. His next piece of protection was only 50 feet above
the belay ledge. The fall was probably caused by J.P. pulling out a
two-foot by two-foot piece of rock near the top of the pitch. It is unclear
whether the rope and protection caught him or the ledge stopped his fall.
[Jim Schlinkmann, CR, DETO]
96-484 - Crater Lake (Oregon) - Search and Rescue
The park received a 911 call reporting that two young children were missing
around 9:30 pm on Tuesday, August 13th. While the duty ranger was taking
down relevant information, a personal report was made to the ranger stating
that some people were in trouble in the Hillman Peak area, the same location
where the children were reportedly missing. A 13-person SAR team was
organized and immediately began a search of the area. Two 17-year-old males
were spotted high on the caldera side of the peak. The team spent the entire
night searching for a route to the two boys and in making a technical
extrication once the route was found. The boys were astride a very narrow
dike and in a very precarious positions. The rock in this location is very
fragile, there's good deal of loose and falling rock, and there are few
places to anchor lines - all of which made the rescue a significant
challenge. Both boys were evacuated by 7:40 a.m. the next morning. They had
one shirt between them and were dressed in shorts. Both were very cold and
in the first stages of hypothermia; one had also suffered minor injuries from
a short fall. They were warmed up, then issued violation notices for
entering the caldera. Indications are that they fully realized the
predicament they had placed themselves in and fully expected that they would
not survive. The boys had apparently gone down to the lake shore, then hiked
back up despite strict admonitions from one of the boy's parents that it was
both illegal and unsafe to enter the caldera and they were to keep out of it.
[George Buckingham, CR, CRLA]
96-485 - Walnut Canyon (Arizona) - ARPA Case
On August 8th, rangers arrested H.W.W. of Valencia, California, for
collecting artifacts within park boundaries. H.W.W. had a sack with him which
contained 435 pieces of pottery, and admitted to collecting them inside the
park. Several projectile points were also found hidden inside one of his
socks. All of the artifacts appeared to have been collected from the surface
of several sites. In a pre-trial agreement, H.W.W. agreed to plead guilty to
a misdemeanor ARPA charge, pay a fine of $1,000, and reimburse the National
Park Service $2,500 for the cost of the investigation and artifact curation.
[Bill Hudson, DR, WUPA]
96-486 - Yosemite (California) - Illegal Killing of Wildlife
On Monday, August 12th, a group of Boy Scouts camped near Little Yosemite
Valley. During the night, bears broke into their food supply. Group
leaders attempted to scare the bears by yelling at them, but their efforts
proved ineffectual since the bears had already acquired the food. Group
leaders then threw "grapefruit" sized rocks at the bears, one of which struck
and killed a juvenile male. Charges have been filed against the individuals
who threw the rocks. [CRO, YOSE]
FIRE ACTIVITY
NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level V
LARGE FIRE/INCIDENT SUMMARY
% Est
State Unit Fire/Incident IMT 8/21 8/23 Con Con
CA Sequoia/Kings Can. NP Kaweah T1 4,179 4,479 95 8/24
Yosemite NP Ackerson Cx T2 13,700 19,865 15 NEC
Stanislaus NF Rogge T2 23,200 23,200 97 8/24
San Luis Obispo RU Highway 58 ST1 69,500 106,668 100 CND
Sequoia NF Chalolo -- 300 2,850 70 9/3
Riverside RU * Orange -- - 548 50 8/23
Mendocino NF Fork T1 75,000 77,490 50 NEC
Shasta-Trinity NF East Fork -- 155 155 75 8/23
Morris -- 400 400 75 8/23
OR Umatilla NF Bull Cx T2 6,903 7,340 45 NEC
Tower T2 4,800 5,250 40 NEC
Malheur NF Wildcat T1 10,655 10,655 80 8/25
Wallowa-Whitman NF Salt Cx T1 56,125 58,780 75 8/25
Willamette NF South Zone Cx T2 3,029 3,029 80 8/25
Umpqua NF Spring T2 2,900 3,160 70 8/26
North Umpqua -- 390 244 50 NEC
NV Elko District Shoemake -- 18,500 20,000 98 8/23
Horsethief -- 500 630 100 CND
MT Nez Perce NF Swet/Warrior T2 29,200 29,200 NR NEC
N. Cheyenne Agency Scarface II -- 800 800 100 CND
UT Cedar City District Cunningham -- 10,000 11,770 20 8/23
State Sarah -- 500 2,000 20 8/23
ID Boise District Three Creek Well -- 10,000 23,135 100 CND
CO Mesa Verde NP Chapin #5 T2 4,700 4,735 100 CND
WY Shoshone NF Dano T2 400 1,300 20 NEC
Casper District * Logan Creek -- - 1,400 95 8/22
AK Statewide 15 fires -- 419,659 428,120 -- NSS
Heading Notes
Unit -- Agency = BIA area; NF = national forest; RU = CA state resource
or ranger unit; RD = state ranger district; District = BLM
district; NWR = USFWS wildlife refuge
Fire -- * = newly reported fire (on this report); Cx = complex; LSS =
limited suppression strategy; CSS = containment suppression
strategy
IMT -- T1 = Type 1; T2 = Type II; ST = State Team
% Con -- Percent of fire contained
Est Con -- Estimated containment date; NEC = no estimated date of
containment; CND = fully contained; NR = no report; LPS = limited
protection status
NPS FIRE NARRATIVES
Chapin #5 Fire, Mesa Verde - The fire has been contained.
Kaweah Fire, Sequoia-Kings Canyon/Tulare Ranger Unit - The fire is being
mopped up. Demobilization of resources has begun.
Ackerson Complex, Yosemite - All fires burned actively yesterday along the
border between the park and the Stanislaus National Forest. Twenty-two
historic cabins in Aspen Valley remain threatened.
NUMBER OF NEW FIRES (FOUR DAY TREND)
NPS BIA BLM FWS States USFS Total
Monday, 8/19 1 5 25 0 50 40 121
Tuesday, 8/20 0 12 22 0 51 42 127
Wednesday, 8/21 7 15 10 0 41 15 88
Thursday, 8/22 2 12 11 1 27 56 109
TOTAL COMMITTED RESOURCES (FOUR DAY TREND)
Crews Engines Helicopters Airtankers Overhead
Monday, 8/19 616 1,110 153 30 3,624
Tuesday, 8/20 650 1,023 164 38 3,958
Wednesday, 8/21 504 557 165 39 2,699
Thursday, 8/22 760 803 171 21 2,854
CURRENT SITUATION
Initial attack activity continued throughout the West yesterday.
Firefighters continued to make headway on large fires in several areas.
Mobilization of resources through NICC stabilized.
NATIONAL OUTLOOK
NICC has posted a FIRE WEATHER WATCH for dry thunderstorms in central Oregon
and in central and southern Nevada, including the Tahoe Basin.
Strong upper level high pressure over the western half of the United States
combined with a weak upper level trough off of the California coast will
spread high level moisture northward across Nevada and California into
central Oregon. This pattern, combined with hot and unstable conditions,
will produce widely scattered dry thunderstorms from southern and central
Nevada, across the Sierras and valleys of California into central Oregon.
Isolated dry thunderstorms are possible in southeast Oregon, southwest Idaho
and the southern Cascades of Washington. Extremely dry conditions will
persist from the coastal states to Montana. Wet thunderstorms will continue
in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. High temperatures will range from the
mid 80s and 90s in the Northern Rockies to 113 in the desert southwest.
[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 8/22-23]
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
No submission.
OPERATIONAL NOTES
Seasonal Park Ranger Careers - Final work is being completed on the seasonal
park ranger portion of the ranger careers initiative. Work on this long and
difficult project has been under way since 1994. Various factors and issues
have caused delays and prevented reaching closure. A draft of the program
will soon be released for selective review and comment. Ranger Activities
hopes to have the final program in place prior to the winter hiring season.
[Bill Sanders, RAD/WASO]
Ruling on Major Tort Claim - A final judgement was recently made in Schiano
vs. the United States, a $1.2 million tort claim stemming from an October,
1993, incident in which park visitor John Schiano fell from an orchard ladder
provided by the park while picking fruit in an orchard at Capitol Reef.
Schiano sustained serious injuries, was treated by park EMTs, and was taken
by ambulance to a local hospital. The case eventually landed in federal
district court in Florida. Schiano's primary arguments centered on a claim
that the ladder was defective and that "the Park and its employees acted
willfully and maliciously in failing to guard or warn of dangerous
conditions" by providing ladders and the opportunity for visitors to pick
fruit. The ladder was proven to be free from defects, and it was determined
that maintenance of park ladders, which is routine and documented, is a
discretionary function of the NPS, thereby precluding an inquiry on abuse of
the discretionary function authority or negligence. It was also found that
various warnings were in place. An important point in the park's defense
concerned the application of the Utah Limitation of Landowners Liability Act.
In essence, that act says that the owner of land owes no duty of care to keep
premises safe for entry by persons using the land for recreational purposes,
or to give warnings of a dangerous condition or use. Because the Schianos
had not paid an entrance fee to access the orchard (the park only charges an
entrance fee for its scenic drive, and they had not passed the entrance
station), the government, as a landowner, was covered by the statute. If the
U.S. had lost this case, it could have greatly impacted orchard operations
within the park's historic Fruita rural cultural landscape, where fruit
picking from the 2800 assorted fruit trees, remnants of a turn-of-the-century
Mormon settlement, is a very popular visitor activity. [Tom Cox, ACR, CARE]
MEMORANDA
No submissions.
EXCHANGE
No submissions.
Distribution of the Morning Report is through a mailing list managed by park,
office and/or field area cc:Mail hub coordinators. Please address requests
for the Morning Report to your servicing hub coordinator.
Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation and
support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.
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