NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
INCIDENTS
Lake Mead NRA
Two Children Die In Temple Bar Trailer Fire
Two children died in a trailer fire in the Temple Bar Marina employee housing area on the morning of July 19th. The singlewide concession employee trailer was fully engulfed in flame when National Park Service volunteer firefighters and rangers arrived. The volunteer firefighters involved in the initial response were employees of Forever Resorts, the authorized concessionaire for Temple Bar Marina. The park has called in counselors from the National Park Service and Mohave County Mental Health to provide grief counseling to both concession and NPS employees. National Park Service investigators, with assistance from Clark County Fire investigators, are looking into the cause of the fire. No other structures were affected and no other injuries were reported. [Andrew S. Muñoz, Public Affairs Officer]
Yosemite NP
Hiker Falls To Death From Park Cliff
Park dispatch received a 911 call from a hiker at Columbia Point last Friday, reporting a stranded hiker on a cliff band above the Upper Yosemite Fall trail. Rangers spotted the man moving around on a tree-covered ledge. Using a loudspeaker, they told him to sit in a safe location and wait for the rescue team to reach him. He retreated from the ledge into the trees. A technical team climbed to his location, but was unable to find the man or make voice contact with him. They found the area to be extremely hazardous, with debris-covered ledges separated by steep cliff faces and gullies. The areas was searched until darkness without success. The next morning, a woman contacted the park and reported that her 61-year-old father had been missing since Friday afternoon and that he might have been hiking in the Yosemite Falls area. The park helicopter reconnoitered the area. The man's body was found near the base of one of the cliffs in late morning. A technical team climbed to the location and confirmed that he was dead. The body was extricated via long line and taken to Ahwahnee Meadow. [Ed Dunlavey, Law Enforcement Office]
Yellowstone NP
Park Visitor Injured By Bison
A visitor from Utah was injured by a bison in a thermal area near Old Faithful on Monday evening. At about 8:30 p.m. on July 19th, a 49-year-old woman and a 61-year-old man were exiting the Biscuit Basin thermal area to rejoin their family group in the parking lot when a bison appeared in some nearby brush and charged them. The woman was struck and flipped in the air. She sustained injuries as a result of the bison's impact and her subsequent fall to the ground. As the man attempted to escape the bison's charge, he tripped and fell, sustaining injuries to his shoulder, hand, and foot. He was not injured by the bison. The family proceeded in their own vehicle toward Jackson, Wyoming. They were intercepted by park rangers near Grant Village, where the rangers and EMT staff provided medical assistance and ambulance transports for both parties to the hospital in Jackson. This is the second time that a park visitor has been charged and injured by a bison this summer. [Al Nash, Public Affairs Officer]
Natchez Trace Parkway
Investigation Underway Into Probable Suicide
The park and Williamson County Sheriff's Department are investigating a probable suicide that took place at the intersection of Tennessee Highway 96 and the on-ramp to the parkway on or about July 15th. The body of a 53-year-old Franklin, Tennessee, was found inside her car there that day. [Mike Foster, Chief Ranger]
OTHER NEWS
The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS. To see the full text, including images, NPS employees should go to the InsideNPS home page ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index). Non-NPS employees can see most of them on the NPS Digest page ( HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/):
Glacier NP - Twenty-two high school students from San Diego now claim a vested interest in Glacier National Park, where they spent the first week in July surveying for mountain goats and assisting with repeat photography for the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center‘s citizen science program. Twenty-two high school students from San Diego now claim a vested interest in Glacier National Park, where they spent the first week in July surveying for mountain goats and assisting with repeat photography for the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center‘s citizen science program.
America's Great Outdoors - Last week, the National Park Service hosted a successful America's Great Outdoors event in Ashveville, North Carolina - the most recent in a series of such sessions being held around the country. Photo.
Great Smoky Mountains NP - On Friday, July 16th, Director Jarvis became the park's latest Not-so-Junior Ranger. Director Jarvis has now joined the ranks of hundreds of visitors to the park who have achieved this special honor since its inception back in 2008.
National Capital Parks East - Members of the community joined several distinguished guests in celebrating the 135th anniversary of the birth of Mary McLeod Bethune on Saturday, July 10th. The program also featured a special tribute to the late Dr. Dorothy Irene Height. Photo.
Midwest Region - Cheryl A. Schreier, superintendent at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, has been selected as the new superintendent for Mount Rushmore National Memorial. She will begin this new assignment on September 27th. Photo.
NPS incident submission standards can be found online at the HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id=8728&lv=2&pgid=3504" serious incident notification web page.
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Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).
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