INCIDENTS

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Florida Parks
Preparations For Frances Accelerate

Hurricane Frances is now forecast to hit Florida hard on Saturday morning, and those in its way are getting ready:

• Big Cypress NP — The park began shutting down yesterday in anticipation of Hurricane Frances' arrival. Preparations were completed yesterday afternoon, thereby making it possible to release employees to take care of their home preparations today and early tomorrow. It's already impossible to find a hotel room in Naples, as residents from Florida's east coast seek places of refuge. The recent experience of Hurricane Charley has everyone sensitive to the possibility of a hit from a major tropical storm. Hunting season was set to begin this weekend in the park; the park will be coordinating the closure with the Florida Fish and Game Commission. Information will also be disseminating information to hunters via telephone lines and a  press release.
• Biscayne NP — The park shutdown in accordance with its hurricane plan at 4 p.m. yesterday. All park islands (including Boca Chita Key, Elliott Key and Adams Key) and the main land area at Convoy Point are closed to the public. Park waters are open for vessel transit only. The closure will remain in effect until further notice. 
• Castillo de San Marcos NM/Fort Matanzas NM — The parks have activated their hurricane plans and were to have preparations completed by the end of Wednesday. Both parks will be closed today and will remain closed until the hurricane has passed. Staff will not be reporting to duty in order to permit them time to make personal preparations for the storm.
• Canaveral NS — The park's incident management team met on Tuesday morning and decided to elevate its preparation procedures to the next level in accord with its hurricane plan. Facilities will be closed by the end of the day today. The Kennedy Space Center/NASA complex is on a similar schedule.

[Submitted by Larry Belles, BICY; Dave Parker, IC, CASA/FOMA; Timothy Morgan, Chief Ranger, CANA; Gary Bremen, BISC]

Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Successful Search for Autistic Boy

A five-year-old autistic boy who was vacationing in the Gatlinburg area with his family was reported missing from the Westgate Resort near Foothills Parkway around 10 a.m. on August 15th. The boy's parents were packing the family car and getting ready to return home. Their son, who suffers from severe autism, was playing by himself at the side of the cabin. After making several trips to load the vehicle, the parents went to check on the boy, but could not find him. The cabin adjoins a densely wooded area with a steep uphill grade leading into the woods. The boy's parents franticly searched the immediate area for several minutes, then contacted the resort office for help.  Members of the resort security patrol helped search for him for about 20 minutes before contacting Gatlinburg PD. City officers and firefighters continued the search, bringing in volunteers, ATV's, search dogs, and a helicopter. Horse and foot trails and the surrounding woods were unsystematically searched for several hours without any results. At about 2 p.m., the park was contacted and assistance was solicited. Under an approved memorandum of agreement with Gatlinburg, four rangers and a trail crew worker responded. A unified command was set up with Gatlinburg PD and Gatlinburg FD; supervisory ranger Steve Kloster served as incident commander for the park. By the time park staff arrived on scene, all signs and physical evidence from the point last seen (PLS) had been destroyed. By using standard search principles, however, a more systemic approach to the search operation was adopted. At about 4 p.m., four NPS employees were searching an assigned area about one mile from the PLS. Out in front of them was a dog and handler from North Carolina. The handler thought he heard a slight whimper up the hill in front of him and checked it out. He spotted the child up the steep grade and about 30 feet up a tree. Rangers arrived on scene within a few minutes; three of them climbed the tree, stationed themselves at intervals, and passed the child down to a ranger on the ground. The child was unharmed and was returned to his family without further incident.  After walking away from the cabin, the boy had gone uphill through dense vegetation, traveled over a mile from the PLS, and climbed 30 feet up a tree. The dog handler said that the dog alerted on the base of the tree, but not until the handler climbed the ridge attempting to locate the whimpering sound. Lessons learned:   

• Before saturating the area with untrained searchers, use a skilled man-tracking team to scout for sign.
• Conduct a thorough lost person profile (it was learned later that the boy liked to climb trees).
• Employ personnel trained and skilled in search principles early in the search operation, and
• Employ personnel familiar with the geographic area early in the search operation.

[Submitted by Rick Brown, District Ranger]

Yosemite National Park (CA)
Four Rescues in Four Days

On August 23rd, 35-year old D.F. and 37-year old D.C., both from Portland, Oregon, were scrambling across Shepard's Pass (elevation 11,500 feet) when D.F. slipped while crossing a steep frozen snowfield and slid more than 60 feet into talus.  He sustained an open fracture of his left ankle and a three-inch avulsion to his right leg. D.C. hiked out and reported the accident by telephone. SAR team members flew to the scene in the park's fire management helicopter and D.F. was short-hauled from the scene. He was transferred inside the helicopter, then transported directly to Mammoth Lakes Hospital. Twenty minutes after receiving the above report, notification was received that 63-year old Sharon Reed of San Diego had fallen from a horse while on a commercial outfitter trip in Virginia Canyon, injuring her knee. Rangers flew to the scene in a second aircraft, the Yosemite/Sequoia fire severity helicopter, which is currently based in Yosemite, and flew her out. Two days later, M.S. and D.P. were rock climbing on the Matthes Crest. At about 3 p.m., M.S. fell and severely fractured — nearly amputated — his right ankle. Another climbing party rappelled off and ran six trail miles to report the accident. At 6:30 p.m., SAR personnel flew in the fire management helicopter and shorthauled M.S. off the Crest, transferred him inside the helicopter, then flew him directly to the Mammoth Lakes Hospital for surgery. On August 26th, J.K., 54, of New York City, fell off a mule and landed on a rock on his chest, fracturing his sternum. Tuolumne rangers hiked to the scene and found that J.K. was having difficulty breathing. The fire management helicopter was used to transport J.K. from the scene to Yosemite Valley, where he was transferred to a commercial helicopter ambulance for immediate transport to Doctors Medical Center in Modesto.[Submitted by George Paiva, Tuolumne SAR Coordinator]

Grand Teton National Park (WY)
Buckboard Accident with Injury

Teton Interagency Dispatch received a phone call from Jackson Lake Lodge yesterday morning, requesting emergency medical assistance for a wagon driver who received head injuries in an accident which occurred during the morning breakfast ride from Jackson Lake Lodge. P.R., 51, was driving a horse-drawn wagon when the horses became spooked by a moose in the willow bushes and suddenly ran for about 430 feet before stopping near a grove of trees. P.R. was thrown off her buckboard seat and injured as she fell to the ground. The accident occurred about three miles west of the lodge, along an old wagon road that runs between Jackson Lake Lodge and Colter Bay Village. Rangers responded from the nearby Colter Bay Ranger Station and a park ambulance arrived shortly after at 9 a.m. Park emergency medical technicians provided initial medical care to P.R., but, due to her injuries, summoned a life flight helicopter for transport to a local hospital. Portneuf Regional Medical Center sent a life flight ship which arrived at 9:50 a.m.and flew P.R. to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls for further treatment. When the accident occurred, two lodge guests were riding aboard the wagon with P.R. Neither of these passengers was injured in the incident. P.R. lives in the park with her husband, J., who is the senior vice president and chief operating officer for Grand Teton Lodge Company.

[Submitted by Public Affairs]

Mojave National Preserve (CA)
Fatal Single-Vehicle Accident

E.B., former photographer for Elvis Presley, was driving north in his 1999 Toyota sedan on Morning Star Mine Road on the afternoon of August 22nd when he allowed the car to drift onto the right shoulder on a curve in the road. He overcorrected to the left, causing the car to cross both lanes to the left shoulder, then roll end over end for about 500 feet before coming to rest on its roof. E.B. suffered only minor injuries, but the passenger — A.D., Presley's announcer and road manager — was ejected and sustained fatal injuries. He was not properly restrained. Excessive speed was a factor in this accident. This was the fifth fatality on park roads during July and August. All have been single-vehicle accidents caused by excessive speed. There were numerous photographs of Elvis scattered around the accident scene. It's estimated that there were thousands of dollars worth of framed, rare photographs in the Toyota at the time of the accident.
[Submitted by Denny Ziemann, Chief Ranger]

Grand Teton National Park (WY)
Rescue from Lower Saddle

Exum Mountain Guides called rangers at 7:20 p.m. on the evening of Tuesday, August 17th, to report that a falling rock had struck and injured the leg of one of their clients, A.C., 41, of Schaumburg, Illinois, while he was climbing near the lower end of a fixed rope below the Lower Saddle. Exum guides provided emergency medical care to the injured A.C. and assisted him in reaching an overnight hut located on the Lower Saddle. Due to his injuries, A.C. was not able to walk further. The park's contract helicopter, returning from another assignment, was diverted to the area to evacuate the injured climber. A.C. was airlifted from the Lower Saddle at approximately 8:10 p.m. and taken to the Lupine Meadows rescue cache, where he was then transported by Exum staff to St. John's Medical Center for further treatment. This helicopter evacuation marks the twelfth major search and rescue effort in the park this year.
[Submitted by Jackie Skaggs, Public Affairs]

Grand Canyon National Park (AZ)
Domestic Violence Arrest

Just before 1 a.m. on July 10th, park dispatch received a 911 call reporting a domestic violence incident in which a man and woman were yelling and screaming outside the laundry at one of the Grand Canyon's trailer parks. The responding rangers contacted two men and two women and found that one couple had been involved in the incident. The man, who was about 25 years old, was determined to be the primary aggressor. Although no physical violence was reported in this confrontation, the woman said that she'd been victim of a number of other instances of physical violence over the previous two years and that the man had also threatened her mother. The man, who has been arrested repeatedly by rangers, was on probation and banned from the park at the time of the incident. He was arrested and charged with assault. He entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, a year of supervised probation and a fine. The other man at the scene, who was extremely uncooperative, intoxicated and provided false information about his identity, was issued mandatory appearance citations for minor consumption of alcohol and disorderly conduct.  The other woman was issued a citation for providing alcohol to minors. 
[Submitted by Karyl Yeston, Shift Supervisor, South Rim]

Big Thicket National Preserve (TX)
Drowning in Neches River

An 11-year-old boy from Vidor, Texas, drowned while swimming in the Neches River at the Lakeview Sandbar day use area on Saturday, August 14th. The boy and a cousin were swimming outside a buoy line marking the "swim only" area when they were caught in the swift current. Neither boy was wearing a life jacket. One was able to catch the rope connecting the buoy line and was later rescued; the other was swept downstream. Two bystanders attempted to rescue the boy. The first rescuer managed to make contact with him, but both the boy and rescuer went underwater.  The first rescuer resurfaced and was subsequently brought to safety by a second rescuer. The 11-year-old did not resurface. The first rescuer was taken to the hospital and treated for injuries sustained during the rescue attempt. Personnel from ten state agencies took part in the search and recovery effort, including four dive teams and two dog teams. An Orange County Sheriff's Department deputy and ranger Brian Gourgues were joint incident commanders. The boy's body was recovered on Sunday at approximately 12:20 a.m. in about 75 feet from were he was last seen.
[Submitted by Cathy Guivas, PIO]

Cuyahoga Valley National Park (OH)
Arrest for Indecent Exposure

On August 7th, rangers responded to a report of a man exposing and fondling himself in front of members of a girls high school cross-country team practicing on the multi-use Ohio and Erie Canal towpath trail. Rangers Dave Vasarhelyi and Jeff Stell identified and arrested Oscar E.V.-S., a Mexican national in the United States on a migrant worker permit. A member of the team, accompanied by her father, identified E.V.-S. shortly after his detention. He was also identified in a photo lineup by the victim of a similar case occurring on July 4th. E.V.-S. was reportedly videotaping the expressions of his victims as they witnessed his obscene gestures during the July 4th incident. A search warrant was executed at his residence for the video camera and tapes allegedly used at that time. The federal magistrate has restricted E.V.-S. movement to the confines of his workplace and residence on a $5,000 bond pending a court appearance on September 17th. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has been notified of the pending court date.
[Submitted by Mosie Welch, Field Operations Supervisor]

Blue Ridge Parkway
Fatal Motorcycle Accident

Rangers Greg Johnson and Kevin Kavanagh responded to a report of a motorcycle accident at milepost 231 just before 8 p.m. on August 15th. A group of five motorcyclists had entered the parkway at milepost 248 and were headed north towards Virginia. The lead motorcyclist encountered three deer foraging on the side of the road and signaled his compatriots to slow down. The second and third riders did so, but the fourth was unable to stop and hit the motorcycle in front of him. Both the operator and his passenger were thrown from the bike. The passenger suffered head and neck trauma and was pronounced dead at the scene; the operator sustained head trauma and was flown to Wake Forest University Trauma Center. The operator of the third motorcycle was arrested for DUI. Kavanagh is leading the investigation.
[Submitted by Chief Rangers Office]

Grand Canyon National Park (AZ)
Conviction For Under Charging At Concession Store

Rangers recently responded to a report of an employee being detained by management at a concession-operated grocery store for "under-ringing" items at a checkout register. He was interviewed by rangers and admitted that he had been engaging in under-ringing for the previous two months. He said that friends would come to his check-out line with expensive alcohol and that he would charge for a small item, then zero out the charge for the alcohol. He was arrested and charged with misappropriation of property. He pled guilty in magistrate's court and was sentenced to restitution of the $400 worth of charges, a suspended fine (contingent on payment of restitution), and probation. His conspirators have been identified and have also been charged. 
[Submitted by Karyl Yeston, Shift Supervisor, South Rim]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

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NIFC/NPS Fire and Aviation Management
National Fire Situation Highlights — Thursday, September 2, 2004

Preparedness Level 2

Initial attack was again light yesterday. A total of 106 new fires were reported, with three becoming large fires and four other large fires contained.

Very high to extreme fire indices were reported yesterday in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

Weather Forecast

Fire danger will be elevated today across much of the Dakotas and into northern Minnesota as a cold front ushers in gusty winds and thunderstorms. Toward the West, the Great Basin will still see very windy conditions again today with areas of low relative humidity and thunderstorms. In California, low relative humidity and windy conditions will be in place today. In addition, northern California will mostly likely see moderate north to northeast winds developing overnight tonight and lasting into Friday morning. Hurricane Frances is expected to track through the Bahamas today packing winds up to 140 mph. Landfall along the southeast coast is expected sometime on Saturday at this point.

Warnings and Watches

RED FLAG WARNINGS have been posted today for:

• Strong, gusty winds and low humidity for central and southern Nevada and central and southern Utah.
• High temperatures, winds, low humidity and dry fuels for northeast Wyoming and western South Dakota.

FIRE WEATHER WATCHES has been issued today for:

• Strong winds and potentially critically low relative humidity for northeast Utah.
• Strong winds, low relative humidity, high temperatures and dry fuels for western Colorado.
• Strong winds and low relative humidity for the following locations in California — the Upper Trinity River region, interior Mendocino county, the north costal mountains of the Mendocino and Shasta Trinity National Forests and adjacent California Department of Forestry (CDF) units, west slope of the northern Sierra Nevada including the Lassen, the Plumas, the Tahoe, the Eldorado, and the Stanislaus National Forests and adjacent CDF units, Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, and all areas of the Monterey.

NPS Fires

For a brief supplemental narrative on each fire, click on the bar with the arrow. Internal NPS readers can link directly to full reports on each fire by clicking on the notepad icon; public readers of the Morning Report can obtain similar information by going to http://www.nps.gov/fire/news

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National/State Team Commitments

Newly listed fires (on this report) appear below in boldface. Changes in the status of a fire (type of team, change from a fire to a complex, etc.) are also noted in boldface.

Fires are sorted by type of team; teams are listed in alphabetical order within each type by the IC's last name.

State	Agency	Team	IC	Fire/Incident and Location	9/1	9/2	% Con	Est Con
AK	State	2	Blume	Camp Creek Fire, Delta Area	174,000	174,000	50	9/30
AK	State	2	Kurth	Taylor Highway Complex, Tok Area Forestry	1,304,963	1,306,605	NR	10/1
UT	BLM	2	Muir	Mail Draw Fire, Vernal Field Office	-----	3,000	20	UNK
UT	BLM	2	Saleen	Big Canyon Fire, Moab Field Office	3,500	3,105	5	9/10

* State incident management team

National Resource Commitments

Day	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu
Date	8/27	8/28	8/29	8/30	8/31	9/1	9/2
Crews	134	127	57	87	70	69	70
Engines	200	155	126	108	132	138	148
Helicopters	45	45	31	45	47	41	44
Air Tankers	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Overhead	1,335	1,055	747	829	661	535	508

Further Information

This report is meant to present just highlights of the current fire situation. Two other NIFC sites provide much greater detail:

Full NIFC Situation Report (PDF file) — http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.pdf
National Fire News — http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html

Information on NPS Fire and Aviation Management (FAM) and on park fires can be found at:

FAM — http://www.nps.gov/fire
Park fires — http://www.nps.gov/fire/news

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.