NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Friday, March 6, 2009

INCIDENTS

Death Valley NP

Ranger Station Fire Suppressed

Ranger Ryan Gallagher and park VIP Jim Klassen heard a smoke detector alarm going off in the Cow Creek Ranger Station on the morning of March 3rd. They also saw smoke coming from the engine bay and a heavier cloud of smoke emitting from the slightly ajar lavatory door, and smelled the strong odor of burning plastic. Klassen evacuated the ranger station and fee collection offices while Gallagher put the fire out with an extinguisher. Other rangers arrived on scene and pulled the park's fire engine and ambulance out of the bay. The fire originated in an overhead exhaust fan in the center of the lavatory ceiling. Investigation showed more damage in the fan ballasts within the ceiling. All damage was contained within the small add-on lavatory. The early detection and quick response by Gallagher and Klassen prevented substantial damage to this structure, which currently houses the park's primary structural fire engine, ambulance, SAR and wildland fire caches, and the primary offices for the park's law enforcement and fee collection operations. The station is a pre-fabricated metal structure built in the late 1980's, intended to be a short term solution to the storage of the park's engine, ambulance and other emergency equipment. [Brent Pennington, Chief Ranger]

Saguaro NP

Suicide Victim Found In Park Picnic Area

On the morning of March 3rd, a Tucson area 911 dispatcher received a phone call reporting a possible fatality in the park's Cam-Boh picnic area. A county deputy was first on scene, followed shortly thereafter by a ranger. They found the body of a 59-year-old Pittsburgh man inside a parked vehicle. Evidence at the scene revealed that the death was a suicide through helium inhalation and asphyxiation. [Bob Love, Chief Ranger]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS:

Office of Public Affairs - A new 45-minute film on the national parks, produced for the NPS by Florentine Films as an offshoot of their upcoming 12-hour-long documentary entitled “The National Parks: America's Best Idea,” was premiered in the DOI auditorium in Washington yesterday. During the event, filmmakers Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan were made honorary NPS rangers.

HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=7417" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=7417

Fire and Aviation Management - Superintendents, deputy superintendents, chief rangers, and structural fire coordinators from 23 engine company parks gathered in Tucson in January for the Service's first structural fire suppression conference.

HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=7412" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=7412

Olympic NP - During the last two weeks of February, Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Olympic National Parks each hosted a two-day Climate Friendly Park workshop.

HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=7411" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=7411

Training Calendar - A listing of upcoming training courses offered by the NPS and its partners across the nation. Added today are the following - a training course for TEL station instructors, a TEL station course on retirement planning for new employees, two operational leadership facilitator courses in California, a course in Omaha on understanding visual resource assessments, and a couple of FLETC training sessions.

HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Conferences&id=1685" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Conferences&id=1685

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Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found at the following web site:

HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363

Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).

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