Big Bend National Park (TX)
Assist on Structural Fire
On the afternoon of April 17th, the park received a mutual aid
request for assistance in dealing with a structural fire at the Ocotillo
Restaurant at Lajitas Resort, located 50 miles west of park headquarters
at Panther Junction. Six park firefighters responded on two structural
engines. Ranger Kathi Hambly arrived from the Castolon area about 40
minutes after the initial call was received and assumed command of the
incident. The first engine arrived 20 minutes later and assisted
Terlingua VFD, already on scene. The deck gun on the Terlingua engine
was trained on fire venting through the roof of the kitchen. Park
firefighters with self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) entered the
building through the dining area and ventilated that part of the
structure. Interior attack was made into the kitchen from the dining
room, halting the spread of the fire. Alpine FD, responding from 100
miles north of the resort, arrived a little over two hours after the
first call for mutual aid. Command of the fire was handed off to them
and park firefighters assisted with extinguishing the remainder of the
fire. Fire suppression efforts were hampered by lack of either water or
a fire hydrant system. Water for one park engine was shuttled from a
wellhead about a mile away by the second park engine. Tank trucks from
the resort's golf course shuttled water for the other engines. Although
the kitchen was destroyed, the restaurant's dining rooms were saved.
There were no injuries, and all park units cleared the scene at
midnight.
[Submitted by Mark Spier, Chief Ranger]
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park (WV)
Successful Intervention in Suicide Attempt
A local law enforcement officer came upon a 37-year-old local woman
asleep in her vehicle in the Bolivar Heights section of the park just
after midnight on March 29th. Rangers Robert Baker and David Tucker
responded and found that the woman had attempted suicide by ingesting up
to 15 Xanax pills. She said that she'd come to the park to die because
it was the only place where she'd been happy and because rangers had
always been nice to her. She was taken to a county hospital for
treatment.
[Submitted by Scot McElveen, Chief Ranger]
FIRE MANAGEMENT
National Interagency Fire Center
NIFC Situation Report - Monday, April 21, 2003
Preparedness Level 2
Only 119 new fires were reported from Friday through Sunday. Two of them were large fires; another four large fires were contained.
The commitment of IMT's to the Columbia Response remains the same, except that Dietrich's Type 2 team has replaced Gray's Type 2 team. Approximately 85% of the assigned search area (595,032 acres) has been searched to date.
Fire Danger
| State |
4/11 |
4/14 |
4/15 |
4/16 |
4/17 |
4/18 |
4/21 |
| Arizona |
VH |
VX |
VX |
VX |
VX |
-- |
-- |
| Colorado |
-- |
VX |
VX |
VX |
VX |
VH |
-- |
| Connecticut |
-- |
-- |
-- |
VX |
-- |
-- |
-- |
| Illinois |
-- |
-- |
-- |
VX |
-- |
-- |
-- |
| Indiana |
-- |
-- |
VX |
VX |
VX |
-- |
-- |
| Minnesota |
-- |
VX |
VX |
VX |
VX |
-- |
-- |
| Missouri |
-- |
VX |
VX |
VX |
-- |
-- |
-- |
| New Mexico |
-- |
VX |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
VH |
| New York |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
VX |
-- |
-- |
| North Dakota |
VH |
-- |
VX |
VX |
-- |
-- |
-- |
| Ohio |
-- |
-- |
-- |
VX |
VX |
-- |
-- |
| Pennsylvania |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
VX |
-- |
-- |
| Wisconsin |
-- |
-- |
VX |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
VH — Very high EX — Extreme VX — Very high to extreme
National Resource Commitments
| Day |
4/11 |
4/14 |
4/15 |
4/16 |
4/17 |
4/18 * |
4/21 |
| Crews |
149 |
157 |
149 |
172 |
155 |
155 |
93 |
| Engines |
84 |
65 |
71 |
132 |
62 |
62 |
12 |
| Helicopters |
7 |
14 |
11 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
1 |
| Air Tankers |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Overhead |
2,419 |
2,319 |
2,099 |
2,149 |
1,784 |
1,784 |
1,849 |
* Numbers did not change from Thursday to Friday.
National Team Commitments
| State |
Type Team |
Team IC |
Incident/Fire |
Acres |
Percent Contain |
Est Full Contain |
| TX |
T1 |
Bennett |
Columbia Response |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
| TX |
T2 |
Crisman |
" |
" |
" |
" |
| TX |
T2 |
Morcum |
" |
" |
" |
" |
| TX |
T2 |
Raley |
" |
" |
" |
" |
| TX |
T2 |
Dietrich |
" |
" |
" |
" |
PARKS AND PEOPLE
Intermountain Region
GS-12 Fuels Specialist
Intermountain Fire and Aviation is recruiting for a GS-12 fuels specialist. The vacancy announcement number is IMDE-03-41; it's now open and closes on May 5th. The person selected will provide professional guidance to parks in the region in the development, management and implementation of fuels treatment programs. She/he will represent the National Park Service at the regional and national multi-agency level regarding National Fire Plan fuels project coordination, collaboration and implementation. The Intermountain Region has a highly complex prescribed fire and fuels program and the workload is complicated by the number of parks, large burnable area, the prescribed fire and fuels management workload, risk potential and human resource needs of the parks. For job specific information contact regional FMO Bryan Swift at 303-969-2449.
[Submitted by Bryan Swift, Regional FMO]
Dinosaur National Monument
GS-9 Commissioned Ranger
The park is currently seeking to fill a GS-9 park ranger position through a lateral transfer. This position is open to any protection ranger at the GS-9 level or above; it's a primary 6c covered law enforcement position and requires an NPS Level I law enforcement commission. Occupancy is required and housing is located in the Quarry area near Jensen, Utah. The person selected will serve as a parkwide patrol ranger, with the opportunity to perform frontcountry and backcountry patrols by foot, four-wheel-drive vehicle, and raft. Boundary patrols will be performed by foot and ATV. This is a great opportunity to perform resource-based law enforcement in a 211,142-acre high mountain desert park containing the Green and Yampa River canyons. Rangers are involved in cultural (ARPA) and paleontological resource protection, natural resource protection (including illegal hunting and cattle trespass), and emergency operations (including wildland fire, emergency medical care and SAR). If you are interested, send an application (OF-612 or SF-171) or resume, your most resent SF-50 and your last performance appraisal to Dinosaur National Monument, Attention Chief Ranger's Office, 4545 Hwy. 40, Dinosaur, CO 81610. The application must be received by May 9th. For further information, contact Dave Panebaker at 970-374-3022.
[Submitted by David Panebaker, Chief Ranger]
Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found on the left side of the front page of InsideNPS. All reports should be submitted via email to Bill Halainen at Delaware Water Gap NRA, with a copy to your regional office and a copy to Dennis Burnett in Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO.
Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.