Park News July 30,2008

Olympic National Park

A memorial service for park firefighter Andy Palmer, who was killed while fighting a wildland fire last week, will be held on Monday.

The service will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday, August 4th, at McCurdy Pavilion in Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend. Director Mary Bomar and Regional Director Jon Jarvis will be joining park employees at the service and will be spending time with park staff at park headquarters afterwards.

An incident management team (Denny Ziemann, IC) will be arriving over the next few days to organize the NPS participation in the service and to assist with logistics. A CISD team is also in the park to provide assistance.  

The park has provided this obituary:

Andrew Jackson Palmer shared almost nineteen years with us on the Olympic Peninsula.  He was born in Port Angeles, Washington, on September 10, 1989 to Janet and Bob Palmer as their third son. 

Andy attended the Children’s Montessori School, Fairview and Franklin Elementary, Roosevelt Middle Schools in Port Angeles and Port Townsend High School.  At 6’5” and 240 pounds, he was a natural for football and valued being part of the Port Townsend football team for four years.   Bonfires on the beach, sporting clays, games of urban golf, fugitive, dark, ultimate Frisbee, baseball, weightlifting, reading and spending time with his many friends filled his days.  Andy was a devoted Big Brother and has a little brother in our community.  He was very proud of his big red Dodge 2500 turbo diesel pickup truck and might be found out bucking hay for local farmers, working at A+ Rentals, Les Schwab, or, more recently, at Auto Works, all in Port Townsend.

Andy is survived by his loving parents; brothers Rob, a firefighter, and Henry, a merchant mariner; grandparents Bob and Ina in Sequim; aunt Beverly and cousin Camille in Santa Barbara, aunt Marilyn Acker of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, family in Canada of aunt Cheryl Acker and cousins Gayle in Kamloops, Joyce and Josh in Vancouver, Karen, Grant and Kayla in Iqaluit, and many more.

Andy had an unerring sense of right and wrong since childhood.  He will always be remembered as one who held himself to the highest principles of truth, fairness, justice and kindness.  He was loyal, honest and trustworthy – loved by all that knew him.  He will be missed but we will all be better for having known him.  Andy would ask those who survive him to conduct their lives with integrity and compassion for a better world.

Andy died honorably as a firefighter for the National Park Service on the Iron Complex fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest near Weaverville, California, on Friday July 25th.

In lieu of flowers, an Andy Palmer Memorial Scholarship fund has been established through the Port Townsend High School Scholarship Foundation.  Donations may be sent to the Foundation at 538 Calhoun Street, Port Townsend, WA 98368.

Condolences should be sent to Bob and Janet Palmer, 1536 Washington Street, Port Townsend, WA 98368. A fund will be established by the Wildland Firefighter Foundation in Andrew’s name.  The foundation is on-line at http://wffoundation.org/ .

 

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area

Just before noon yesterday, an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale was felt in southern California. The epicenter was in Chino Hills, near the point where Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange counties meet. The epicenter was about 40 miles from the far eastern edge of the park and approximately 70 miles from headquarters in Thousand Oaks. While felt throughout the park, no staff injuries have been reported, nor any damage to buildings, dams, reservoirs or other facilities. Damaged buildings are being reported within a 10 to 15 mile circumference of the epicenter, though, and numerous smaller aftershocks have also been felt.

 

Lincoln Memorial

On the afternoon of Monday, June 30th, USPP officer Jason Keyser was dispatched to the Lincoln Memorial bookstore to investigate a robbery that had just occurred. Keyser met with the complainant, who reported having his wallet taken by two suspects by stealth.  A review of the bookstore security camera showed two people working together to steal his wallet. One of the two, later identified as Jerry Wheeler, was seen on the video blocking the man’s exit from the bookstore as his accomplice stole the wallet. Shortly thereafter, it was determined that one of the credit cards in the wallet had been used at a nearby store. Surveillance video from the store showed the same two people as on the bookstore surveillance video. Detective Glenn Luppino was assigned the case and disseminated an information bulletin concerning the crime.  On July 16th, he was contacted by the DC Court Services head of security, who said that Wheeler was meeting with his probation officer. He also advised that Wheeler was wearing a monitoring device that showed that he’d been at the Lincoln Memorial and subsequently near the store the credit card was used on the date and approximate times of the crimes. Detectives Luppino and Scott Powers contacted the probation office and saw that Wheeler was wearing the same outfit he was wearing during the commission of the crime.  He was arrested and charged with robbery by stealth. The detectives are still searching for the second suspect in this case. 

 

Dinosaur National Monument

An eight-year-old boy on an OARS commercial river trip drowned in the Green River at Upper Disaster Falls on the afternoon of Sunday, July 27th. The park became aware of the incident around 6:30 p.m., and, based on information in the initial report, prepared for a search operation using a fire helicopter. When park staff learned that CPR had been begun on the boy, they sought to arrange a Life Flight medevac helicopter flight from Grand Junction to the park, but the helicopter was grounded due to weather. They then attempted to get a fire helicopter to the scene, but it had to land across the river from the boy’s location in the only available safe landing zone. It then returned to base as dusk approached. When the tour group arrived in Echo Park on Monday, they were met by park and county sheriff’s office personnel, the coroner and grief counselors.


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Rocky Mountain National Park

A 58-year-old man was seriously injured on the evening of Friday, July 25th, when his vehicle went off Trail Ridge Road near the Gore Range overlook around 8:30 p.m., then rolled numerous times for over 500 feet downslope from the road. He was able to crawl out of the car, then laid next to it all night until a visitor spotted the wreck around 7:30 a.m. the following morning and notified the park. Rangers found that he’d suffered multiple injuries, and he was flown by a Lifeguard helicopter to the Medical Center of the Rockies. The accident is under investigation.

 

National Capital Region

Dates: 06/27/2008 - 08/11/2008

National Capital Region has issued a vacancy announcement for a park manager or program manager (deputy superintendent) position with National Mall and Memorial Park. It is open to current federal employees of the Department of the Interior. The announcement number is NPS-NCR-08-35. Click on "More Information" below for a link to the announcement and application instructions.



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National Capital Region

Dates: 07/16/2008 - 08/06/2008

National Capital Region has issued a vacancy announcement for a human resource specialist position in the White House liaison office. It is open to federal government candidates and reinstatement eligibles. The announcement number is NPS-NCR-08-42. Click on "More Information" below for a link to the announcement and application instructions.



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National Capital Region

Dates: 07/21/2008 - 08/04/2008

National Capital Region has issued a vacancy announcement for a museum technician in the region's Museum Resource Center in Landover, Maryland. This is a term position, not to exceed four years. The announcement number is NPS-NCR-08-41. Click on "More Information" below for a link to the announcement and application instructions.



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