- Subject: NPS Morning Report - Wednesday, August 6, 1997
- Date: Wed, 6 Aug 1997
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
To: All National Park Service Areas and Offices
From: Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office
Day/Date: Wednesday, August 6, 1997
Broadcast: By 1000 ET
INCIDENTS
97-434 - Yellowstone NP (WY) - Accidental Death of Employee
Maintenance employee Rory Perkins, 38, died of injuries sustained in an
accident at the maintenance garage at Mammoth Hot Springs yesterday morning.
Perkins, a heavy equipment mechanic, was testing a snowmobile using a gasohol
fuel, which is being considered by the park for use in snow machines next
year to reduce air pollution. The snowmobile had an air-cooled engine, so
the test was being conducted with it in operation. The snowmobile's front
skis had been replaced with solid rubber tires for better steering while
traveling over bare pavement. Perkins, who was working alone, apparently
lost control of the snowmobile, which struck the side of the garage building.
He sustained massive, multiple injuries, including internal and head injuries
and an apparent broken arm and leg. The accident was unwitnessed. Park
emergency services personnel were in a training session nearby and responded
immediately. Perkins was transported by ambulance to the clinic at Mammoth,
where a physician came aboard to assist with patient treatment en route to a
rendezvous with a life flight helicopter. Shortly after leaving the clinic,
Perkins' condition deteriorated and the ambulance returned to the clinic
pending the arrival of the life flight. He went into cardiac arrest at the
clinic and did not respond to resuscitation efforts. The cause of the
accident is under investigation. The machine has received a preliminary
inspection and has been secured for further evaluation by a Polaris
representative and possibly an independent automotive engineer. An OSHA
investigator will arrive in the park today. Rory had been a heavy equipment
maintenance mechanic at the park since 1991. Before that, he'd worked for
the Wyoming highway department in Lander. Rory was an active member in the
park community and had been very active in the Mammoth volunteer fire
department, including service as fire chief since April, 1996. He is
survived by his wife, S., the chief rangers' secretary (currently on
detail to the finance office), and by his son, B., daughter, M.G.,
son-in-law, Ma.G., and grandson, Mar.G. A memorial
service has been tentatively scheduled for August 10th at the Mammoth Hot
Springs chapel. A critical incident stress debriefing will be held for park
staff today. [Mike Murray, ACR, YELL, 8/6]
97-435 - War in the Pacific NHP (Guam) - Assist: Major Airline Accident
The Korean Airlines 747 which crashed on approach to the Guam International
Airport around 1 a.m. on August 6th (local time) stuck the ground on Nimitz
Hill about 750 yards southeast of the park's Fonte Plateau unit. All but
about 30 of the approximately 250 passengers and crew members were killed.
Incident command was set up under the Guam civil defense system; units
responded from all major government agencies, including the National Park
Service. Survivors have been evacuated. Fires continue to burn in the area,
but all are contained. There are unconfirmed reports that a 16-inch fuel
pipeline that crosses the crash site was severed. The crash site is located
in a jungle drainage downslope from the park unit, however, and it appears
that there won't be any direct impacts on the park from fire, debris or
rescue efforts. The aircraft was scattered over an area of five to ten
acres. [Ed Wood, Superintendent, WAPA, 8/6]
97-436 - Capitol Reef NP (UT) - Significant Flash Flood
During the afternoon of August 4th, powerful thunderstorms caused a major
flash flood down the Sulphur Creek-Fremont River drainage, which is located
in the park's headquarters district. Water levels in the drainage rose from
a norm of about eight inches to an average of 15 feet, causing massive
flooding through the Fremont River gorge and the Utah Highway 24 corridor.
Water carrying heavy debris and large tree trunks crossed the highway at
several points, causing multiple temporary road closures. Flood waters
damaged or destroyed sections of several headquarters area trails, including
the Chimney Rock and Hickman Bridge trails. The popular campground-to-
visitor center trail was buried under mud flows for its entire one mile
length. Several visitors were stranded by flood waters on the Hickman Bridge
trail, which was inundated to a depth of four feet by fast moving water. A
partial evacuation of the campground was required due to the threat of
flooding to low-lying campsites along the Fremont River. The flood lasted
for about four hours. This flood is the latest in an on-going series of
serious flash floods caused by an unusually cool and wet southern Utah
monsoon season. Flood watch, crowd control, road closure and public
information operations were handled by a flood response team composed of
personnel representing all park divisions. Garry Olson was IC. [Bob Van
Belle, Chief of Operations, CARE, 8/5]
97-437 - Yosemite NP (CA) - Rescue
A 19-year-old employee of a private church camp in Wawona was scrambling on
boulders in the Chilnualna Creek drainage around 6:30 p.m. on July 26th when
he lost his balance and fell about 30 feet, landing on his feet. Both heel
bones were crushed and he fractured his wrist. When he failed to return for
work that evening, friends who had been with him earlier in the day returned
to the area and heard him calling for help. Rangers were called for
assistance at 9:30 p.m. Hazardous terrain and darkness prevented an
immediate evacuation. Rangers stabilized the victim with the aid of church
camp personnel and prepared him for a technical rescue. He was evacuated by
high line traverse 150 feet across the drainage at daylight. A litter team
then carried him to a waiting ambulance. [Todd Brindle, DR, Wawona District,
YOSE, 8/5]
[Additional reports pending...]
FIRE ACTIVITY
NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level II
LARGE FIRE/INCIDENT SUMMARY
Mon Tue % Est
State Unit Fire/Incident IMT 8/4 8/5 Con Con
CA Los Padres NF Logan T1 1,200 3,500 0 NEC
* Hopper T2 - 1,492 0 NEC
Lassen-Modoc RU Gooch ST1 500 722 60 8/6
OR Prineville District * Fitzgerald -- - 200 0 NEC
WA State Pow Wah Kee -- 8,000 8,000 0 NEC
NV Elko District Reinhart -- 650 650 100 CND
Winnemucca District Summit -- 1,000 1,000 NR 8/5
AK# Southwest Area Inowak T2 571,500 573,000 10 NEC
Chiniklik Mt. T2 3,283 3,283 95 8/6
Galena District Simels -- 365,940 386,000 0 NEC
Paimiut T2 1,197 2,467 65 8/15
Magitchlie Creek -- 209,409 347,000 0 NR
# Alaska has 53 other large fires burning for a total of 1,761,918 acres.
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
NUMBER OF NEW FIRES (FIVE DAY TREND)
NPS BIA BLM FWS States USFS Total
Friday, 8/1 1 4 20 0 121 64 210
Saturday, 8/2 0 5 11 1 52 79 148
Sunday, 8/3 0 1 9 0 45 67 122
Monday, 8/4 0 4 12 0 232 41 289
Tuesday, 8/5 6 1 5 0 63 64 139
TOTAL COMMITTED RESOURCES (FIVE DAY TREND)
Crews Engines Helicopters Airtankers Overhead
Friday, 8/1 63 43 39 12 166
Saturday, 8/2 68 123 32 7 201
Sunday, 8/3 92 76 27 8 38
Monday, 8/4 84 108 29 28 227
Tuesday, 8/5 159 178 52 20 408
COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT
1997: YTD Ten Year Average: YTD
Number of fires 42,567 53,257
Acres burned 2,458,825 1,958,747
CURRENT SITUATION
Fire activity increased yesterday in southern California, necessitating the
mobilization of Type I and Type II incident management teams to the Los
padres NF. Firefighters made significant progress on fires in Alaska and
northern California. NICC processed resource orders for aircraft, equipment
crews and miscellaneous overhead in support of the large fires in California.
Fire indices remain very high to extreme in California, Arizona and Nevada.
A BLM employee was killed in an automobile accident yesterday morning after
delivering supplies to the Gooch fire in northern California.
[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 8/6]
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Point Reyes NS (CA) - Elk Management
The park will begin an immuno-contraception research study of the tule elk
today with the assistance of the University of California/Davis, USGS'
Biological Resources Division, and the California Department of Fish and
Game. PZP, a contraceptive vaccine, will be administered to 30 radio-
collared elk cows. The vaccine has been 90% effective in other mammals. Ten
tule elk were reintroduced to a 2,600-acre enclosure in 1978; since that
time, the population has grown dramatically to the current total of 465
animals. Wet winters with exceptional forage have led to the birth of 180
calves over the past two years. A previous estimate of the carrying capacity
for the area set the limit at 340 elk. This project and other on-going
research on population dynamics and impacts on special status species will
provide extremely valuable base line information for the development of the
park's tule elk plan, which will be presented to the public this winter. The
park's long-term goal is to establish a free-ranging, self-regulating elk
population. [Don Neubacher, PORE]
OPERATIONAL NOTES
No submissions.
MEMORANDA
No submissions.
EXCHANGE
Climbing Plan - The final climbing plan and FONSI for Acadia has been
completed. If you'd like a copy, contact Charlie Jacobi at NP-ACAD via
cc:Mail or look on the web at http://www.nps.gov/acad/w95026aa.html in the
near future (the plan hasn't been posted yet). Copies of the plan can be
provided in either WP 5.1 or 6.1.
OBSERVATIONS
This section, which appears intermittently in the Morning Report, contains
observations regarding the National Park Service, the System and the several
professions of park employees. Today's observation has been excerpted from a
collection of quotations entitled "John Muir: In His Own Words," compiled and
edited by Peter Browning.
"Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on
the mountains go to our hearts; and if people in general could be got into
the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all
difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish."
John Muir, "The National Parks and
Forest Reservations," from the
Sierra Club Bulletin, January, 1896
* * * * *
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Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation and
support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.
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