The Morning Report for Wednesday, October 20, 2004

INCIDENTS

Cape Hatteras National Seashore (NC)
Employee Life Saved Through Rapid EMS Response

Seasonal visitor use assistant John Benson, 60, was making his evening rounds through the Oregon Inlet campground just after 6 p.m. last May 28th when he collapsed while talking to campers.

The campers — Mike Chriest, Jim Ralston and Susan Ralston, all from Virginia Beach — found that Benson was pulseless and was not breathing. Susan Ralston called 911 while the two men began CPR.

Dare County Communications contacted ranger/EMT Chuck Hutson, who arrived on scene two minutes later. Huston and Mike Chriest continued CPR until county paramedics arrived about eight minutes later and administered one shock with an AED, restoring Benson's pulse. He also resumed breathing and soon regained consciousness. Benson was taken to Outer Banks Hospital for initial treatment, then flown to Chesapeake General Hospital for definitive cardiac care.

Benson returned to work on June 23rd after having a defibrillator implanted. He did not suffer the medical problems generally associated with reduced levels of oxygen to the brain that generally occur with CPR. Benson and his doctors attribute that to the effective CPR provided by the visitors and by Huston.
[Submitted by Jon Anglin, Acting Chief Ranger]

Natchez Trace Parkway (AL,MS,TN)
Fatal Pickup Truck Accident

On Monday, October 11th, rangers responded to a report of a motor vehicle accident on the Natchez Trace Parkway near Interstate 55 in Madison County, Mississippi.

The initial report of the accident was received around 8:30 a.m. from an off-duty firefighter who noticed tire tracks that indicated skidding and soon found a wrecked 1997 GMC pickup off the highway. The driver, Laurence Medders, 52, was deceased.

Medders had been traveling southbound on the parkway and failed to negotiate the curve on the exit ramp from the parkway to the interstate. The truck went off the road and down an embankment, then rolled over, ejecting Medders.

Ridgeland PD and the Madison County Sheriff's Office assisted in the accident investigation. Rachel Strain is the case ranger.
[Submitted by Charles Cuvelier, Chief Ranger]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

NIFC/NPS Fire and Aviation Management
National Fire Situation Highlights — Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Preparedness Level 1

There were 49 new starts yesterday. None escaped initial attack. Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in California and Nebraska.

Weather Forecast

More rain and mountain snow is expected for much of the West as a strong storm moves through the area. The heaviest precipitation is expected over California and the Great Basin.

Warnings and Watches

No warnings or watches have been issued for today.

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

{||inc|http://data2.itc.nps.gov/fire/includes/bill_table.cfm||}

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	10/19	10/20	% Con	Est Con

FL	FEMA	T2	Muir	Hurricane Response, Saufley Field NAS	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

National Resource Commitments

Day	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed
Date	10/14	10/15	10/16	10/17	10/18	10/19	10/20

Crews	109	121	132	117	31	15	9
Engines	216	300	307	247	82	30	11
Helicopters	23	27	39	28	12	9	6
Air Tankers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Overhead	633	695	820	404	411	217	169

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

OPERATIONAL NOTES

Fire and Aviation Management
Byte-sized Fire News

Byte-sized Fire News is information to keep you updated on new items on the NPS fire websites. These will be periodic messages titled "Byte-sized Fire News". Feel free to pass it on to people who may have an interest.

Now Posted

InsideNPS - Thank you very much for your patience during the recent transition of InsideNPS to a new version. You can still find InsideNPS Fire & Aviation at http://inside.nps.gov/fire and http://inside.nps.gov/programs/fire. If you find any bugs within InsideNPS Fire & Aviation, please let me know and I will work with IT to get them resolved.

Forums - A new feature on InsideNPS, one of the forums is called "The Fire House - A forum area to discuss items related to Fire Management." I encourage you to use it for discussion topics. You login using your internet Lotus Notes username and password and can post new topics as well as follow discussion threads. If you haven't done so already, take a few moments to check it out! http://inside.nps.gov/forum/

Strategic Plans - Two fire-related programmatic strategic plans have been posted to the Strategic Plans section of InsideNPS Fire & Aviation. The NPS Wildland Fire Communications and Education Strategy was approved May 18, 2004 and the National Park Service Fire Ecology Program Strategic Plan : 2004-2008 was approved August 11, 2004. You can find these as well as the Wildland Fire Strategic Plan at - http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=WasoInDepthDetails&menuid=2059&div=73&page=home

Fire Ecology Mailing Lists - Do you need to contact fire ecologists en masse? Look no further than the Lotus Notes - Fire Ecology Program mailing lists are available on Lotus Notes to help expedient communication:

NIFC NPS Regional Fire Ecologists@NPS.... (includes NPS national and regional ecologists)
NIFC NPS Park Fire Ecologists@NPS....
NIFC NPS Fire Effects Monitors@NPS....
NIFC NPS Fire Ecology Steering Committee@NPS....

Tina Boehle
Fire Communications and Education Specialist
Fire Management Program Center
3833 S. Development Ave.
Boise, ID 83705
208-387-5875
http://www.nps.gov/fire
[Submitted by Tina Boehle, tina_boehle@nps.gov, 208-387-5875] More Information...

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Haleakala National Park (HI)
GS-11 Operations Supervisor

Haleakala NP is looking for qualified lateral reassignment candidates for a position as the park's operations supervisor. The person selected will:

serve as the principle deputy for the chief ranger for resource protection and emergency services;
perform law enforcement ranger duties and lead rangers in all emergency services parkwide;
manage the parkwide fee collection and commercial and special park uses revenue program, including accounting and fee security;
perform, train, direct and coordinate parkwide EMS, SAR, fire, and helicopter special use operations;
arrest criminals, prepare arrest and prosecution reports, coordinate cases with the AUSA, and present the government's case in civil and criminal court and in tort claims;
serve on the park safety committee;
serve on or directs participation of subordinates on other committees and collateral duties, including fire cache management, SUP's and IBP's, community policing, etc;
formulate the division budget with the chief ranger, then track expenditures, process government credit card statements, plan purchases, balance the budget and plan personnel costs; and
hire, equip and train rangers within allotted FTE's and budget.

For inquiries, contact park personnel at 808-572-4403.

Haleakala National Park (HI)
GS-9 Protection Ranger

The park is seeking a commissioned ranger for its Kipahulu Unit.

The person selected will:

conduct regular frontcountry patrols, including traffic enforcement and visitor services;
work with resource managers to develop and coordinate protection efforts throughout the park's designated scientific research reserve;
provide EMS, SAR and fire emergency services as regular collateral duties;
serve as the Kipahulu Unit EMS coordinator and fee operations liaison with the fee supervisors in the Summit District.

The person in this position is supervised by the Kipahulu unit manager.

National Center for Preservation Technology and Training
Historic Architecture and Engineering Program Manager

Dates: 10/18/2004 - 10/29/2004

The National Park Service's National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT) is seeking an historical architect, engineer or architectural historian to manage the center's historic architecture and engineering program.

NCPTT (www.ncptt.nps.gov) is a research center of the National Park Service located on the campus of Northwestern State University in historic Natchitoches, Louisiana. Natchitoches offers a number of cultural and recreational activities.

The salary begins at $58,665 or 69,762, depending on education and experience. This position closes on October 19th.

For a complete announcement and information on how to apply, please visit http://jobsearch.usajobs.opm.gov/ and search for announcements NPS WASO-044A (historical architect) or NPS WASO-04-050 (architectural historian).

* * * * * * * * * *

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.