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Subject: NPS Morning Report - Thursday, November 4, 1999
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Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 08:53:58 -0500
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
To: All National Park Service Areas and Offices
From: Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office
Day/Date: Thursday, November 4, 1999
INCIDENTS
99-653 - Golden Gate NRA (CA) - Multiple Rescues
Park staff conducted a series of rescues between October 16th and the 20th:
o On October 16th, the park was advised of a woman and dog stranded on
the cliffs at Fort Funston, about 100 feet above the beach. Rangers
Ron Heeren and Matt Ehmann and NPS Ocean Beach safety patrol officers
Greg Gubser, Mark Vann, Rich McLaughlin, Shane Hauschild, and Bill Hood
responded. The woman was able to climb down to safety without
assistance, but it took a technical cliff rescue to retrieve the 140-
pound Great Dane. The dog was secured to the ropes with a modified
safety harness, then the rangers and dog were lowered to the beach.
o Rangers Stephen Prokop and Ehmann were called out of their park
residences at 3 a.m. on October 17th to rescue five people injured from
a fall off a cliff at Fort Funston. They transported city paramedics
by four-wheel-drive vehicle down Ocean Beach to the base of a 200-foot
sandstone cliff. One victim had suffered a cervical-1 fracture, the
second had major abdominal trauma, the third had an ankle fracture, the
fourth and fifth had minor cuts and bruises. The victims were quickly
secured on backboards and taken off the beach, as an incoming tide
threatened to block access to the beach by vehicles. The five, all in
their late teens or early 20s, had evidently consumed drugs and alcohol
before deciding to "roll" down the cliff together. They didn't realize
that the last 50 feet of the cliff is nearly vertical.
o NPS safety officers Hood and Sean Scallon received a report of an
injured person at the cliffs a mile south of Fort Funston on October
19th. Prokop, safety patrol officers, and firefighters searched the
area and eventually found the male victim two-and-a-half miles south of
the fort. He'd fallen 100 vertical feet to the beach and was suffering
from seven rib fractures, a flail chest, a fractured jaw and other
facial bone fractures, a fractured arm, and massive bleeding into his
chest cavity. He was stabilized and taken by park vehicle to a waiting
ambulance. He underwent three hours of surgery at the hospital and is
expected to fully recover.
o On October 20th, Forbes, Scallon and Hauschild began a search for a
possibly suicidal adult male at Ocean Beach. Safety patrol officers
found him hidden in some sand dunes, suffering from severe bleeding at
both wrists and ankles. They cleaned and bandaged the self-inflicted
wounds and transported him to an ambulance.
o Later on that same day, Forbes, Scallon and Hauschild responded to the
cliffs below Fort Funston for another falling victim. The man was
treated for minor facial injuries and a lower back fracture, then
evacuated.
[Stephen Prokop, SPR, South Unit, GOGA, 11/2]
99-654 - Golden Gate NRA (CA) - Explosives
On October 17th, rangers and Ocean Beach public safety staff coordinated the
safe removal of three unexploded, eight-inch, armor-piercing shells found on
a remote beach in the Marin Headlands. An ICS unified command was
established with the Coast Guard and DOD demolitions experts. The explosives
were blown up on October 20th after much planning and preparation. An NPS
inflatable rescue boat was used to land three military demolitions experts
and their equipment on a rocky cove beach. A second inflatable rescue boat
was used to help the Coast Guard maintain a 500-meter safety perimeter in the
water. Other rangers maintained a similar perimeter on shore. [Stephen
Prokop, SPR, South Unit, GOGA, 11/2]
99-655 - George Washington Birthplace NM (VA) - Special Event
A commemorative ceremony was held for the descendants of servants indentured
to George Washington's father, Augustine, at Popes Creek Plantation on
October 9th. Family members from throughout the United States met to honor
Mary Bowden and her daughter, Patty Bowden, who was born on the plantation in
1749. Both women were bound over as indentured servants, as Virginia
colonial law required that mixed race children serve 30 year indentures. The
Washington family befriended the Bowden family and assisted descendants with
freedom and prosperity in the late 1700s. Bowden descendants served in the
Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War. The event was jointly
coordinated by park ranger/historian James Laray and Anita Wills, a Bowden
descendant. Speakers were joined by historic blues singer and story-teller
Guy Davis (son of Ossie Davis and Rubie Dee) and the "All Together" choir
from Tower of Deliverance Church. The park also held a Plantation Harvest
Festival in support of the ceremony. [John Frye, GEWA, 10/15]
FIRE ACTIVITY
NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level II
LARGE FIRE/INCIDENT SUMMARY
Mon Tue % Est
State Unit Fire/Incident IMT 11/1 11/2 Con Con
ND Dakota Prairie NF Rough Creek/
Squaw Gap T2 32,000 68,000 85 11/3
MT State N.E. Corner -- 1,500 1,500 100 CND
Mill Iron -- 4,000 4,000 90 11/2
Johnstone -- 7,800 7,800 90 11/2
* Antelope -- - 2,500 100 CND
CA Shasta-Trinity NF Big Bar Cx AC/2T1 138,960 139,655 95 11/5
MN State McKinley -- 8,000 3,200 90 11/1
Heading Notes
Unit Agency or Area Office = BIA area; NF = national forest; RU = CA
state resource or ranger unit; RD = CA state ranger district;
Region = CA state region; FO = BLM field office; District = BLM
district; NWR = USFWS wildlife refuge
Fire * = newly reported fire (on this report); Cx = complex
IMT AC = Area Command; T1 = Type I Team; T2 = Type II Team; T3 = Type
III Team; ST = State Team; FUM = Fire Use Management Team
% Con Percent of fire contained: UNK = unknown; NR = no report
Est Con Estimated containment date: NEC = no estimated date of
containment; CND = fully contained; UNK = unknown; NR = no
report; RBF = resource benefit fire, no containment action being
taken; LR = last report unless significant activity occurs
NUMBER OF NEW FIRES (FOUR DAY TREND)
NPS BIA BLM FWS States USFS Total
Saturday, 10/30 0 15 2 0 25 8 50
Sunday, 10/31 0 0 1 0 3 20 24
Monday, 11/1 1 16 0 0 157 33 207
Tuesday, 11/1 0 0 3 0 100 5 108
TOTAL COMMITTED RESOURCES (FOUR DAY TREND)
Crews Engines Helicopters Airtankers Overhead
Saturday, 10/30 32 54 15 0 641
Sunday, 10/31 31 52 11 0 637
Monday, 11/1 28 200 8 0 542
Tuesday, 11/2 5 127 7 0 126
CURRENT SITUATION
There was little activity anywhere Tuesday except in for a few fires in the
East and South. Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in
California, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Missouri.
[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 11/31]
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, PROTECTION AND EDUCATION
No entries.
OPERATIONAL NOTES
Director's Orders - Several draft director's orders (DO's) are now out for
review:
o DO-5, Correspondence and Electronic Communications - The 60-day comment
period ends on December 31st.
o DO-25, Land Protection - The 60-day comment period ends on November
29th.
o DO-35, Sale or Lease of Services, Resources, or Water Available within
an Area of the National Park System - The public comment period closes
on November 22nd, per notice in the Federal Register.
o DO-24, Cultural Resources - The 60-day comment period ends on December
30th.
o DO-50B, Risk Management - The 14-day comment and review period ended on
October 20th.
All of these documents and other information can be found at Policy Place on
the NPS Intranet site at http://165.83.219.60/nps/policy/Polplace.cfm.
Please contact Marcia Keener at 202-208-4298 if you have any questions.
MEMORANDA
No entries.
INTERCHANGE
No entries.
PARKS AND PEOPLE
No entries.
* * * * *
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
pertaining to receipt of 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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