Lake Mead National Park Public Safety
LAKE MEAD NATIONAL RECREATION AREA PUBLIC SAFETY
A National Recreation Area is very similar to a National Park except that there is less emphasis placed on maintaining the existing landscape and vegetation. Lake Mead NRA (known as LAME) is a unit of the National Park Service (NPS) which is within the United States Department of Interior. (see www.nps.gov for the NPS website)
1992 info - 200 square miles - 287 buildings owned by government or concessionaires - 1153 house trailers - 1 hotel - 6 motels - 142 vacation cabins - 11 campgrounds - 9 marinas - 3285 moored boats - 1280 boats in storage
The Assistant Chief Ranger for Visitor Services (who serves under the Chief Ranger) is designated as the Park Fire Chief. (The Chief Ranger reports directly to the Park Superintendant who is the ranking Natl Park Service official onsite).
Fire protection in LAME is generally divided into the "Structural Fire Brigade" and the "Wildfire Program". The Structural Fire Brigade concentrates on building, boat, and vehicle fires (plus auto extrications). The Wildfire Program concentrates on vegetation fires in the Shivwits area. (I suspect that some people work in both groups)
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Structural Fire Brigade
District Fire Officers work under the District Rangers. All permanent protection rangers, volunteers from other NPS branches, concession employees, and seasonal NPS staff serve as Structural Fire Brigade members. All of the brigade members must be trained to the Firefighter 2 level. A minimum of 3 firefighters, with an optimum level of 5 firefighters, must be present in order to begin interior firefighting or rescue operations.
Pumpers
Engine 1 - Katherines Landing
Engine 2 - Cottonwood Cove
Engine 3 - Willow Beach
Engine 4 - Boulder beach
Engine 5 - Callville Bay
Engine 6 - Echo Bay
Engine 7 - (none/nowhere/neverwas)
Engine 8 - Temple Bar
Squad 3 - Willow beach
Squad 5 - Vegas Wash
Squad 6 - Overton/Echo Bay
Concession Fire Boats - Echo Bay - Temple Bar - Callville Bay - Boulder Beach - Cottonwood Cove - Katherines Landing
Response Procedures
Katherine - backup from Bullhead City FD - ETA20
Cottonwood Cove - backup from Searchlight FD - ETA30
Willow Beach - backup from Boulder Beach NPS and Temple Bar NPS
Boulder Beach - automatic 1 Boulder City FD engine on building fires with ETA10 - automatic backup by Vegas Wash NPS on marina fires
Vegas Wash and Callville Bay - automatic backup by Boulder beach NPS on building and marina fires
Echo Bay - backup from Overton FD - ETA45 minutes
Overton beach - automatic backup from Echo Bay NPS on building fires - Overton FD available with ETA of 25 minutes
Temple Bar - Willow Beach NPS is backup
Rigs - all engines (except Eng 3) are 1986 Ford/FTI 1000GPM with 750 gallons of water carrying 1400 feet of 4 inch hose and 800 feet of 1.75 inch hose - each rig also has a 1000 GPM monitor nozzle.
Engine 3 has a 1992 KME 1250/750 with Jaws. The squads are 1978 Ford minipumper 120GPM/200gallon.
Updates - ?1994 - Sqd 3 is a 1981 Chev Modulance rescue - Boulder Beach has a 1978 Western Sqd (mini) and a 1993 Wheeled Coach rescue - Temple Bar has a 1977 Ford Rescue - Cottonwood Cove has a 1981 Chev rescue - Las Vegas Wash has a conseccion fire boat - Cottonwood Cove has a 16 foot concession fire boat - Willow Beach has a 20 foot ?NPS Patrol Boat with a 60GPM pump - Willow Beach Concession has a utility boat with a 100GPM pump - the Cottonwood Cove concession has a 1000 gallon water tender
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1995 Radio info - 3 repeaters on 166.30R - 2 tones for fire calls - 1 tone for EMS calls
see www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/9952/nps.htm for lots of NPS radio freqs and base callsigns - LAME added law enforcement repeater in ?9/98 on 172.60R - 169.80in
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?50 people die in the park annually in accidents
?10 fire stations - ?10 pumpers + ?2 mini pumpers - no helo - use med helo from Las vegas for medevacs - have EMS volunteers
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1997 official info - Law Enforcement Program costs $3.2 million - have 42 permanent Level 1 commissioned rangers plus 20 seasonal Level 2 commisioned rangers plus 4 investigators - had 3 murders and 6 rapes - starting AVL for all vehicles - 3rd console for marine ops at Comm Center manned by US Coast Guard Auxiliary - seek VIPs for Meadview ALS and Wildfire - converted Comm Center to Interagency Comm Center - Shivwits has a law ranger 6 months per year - Shivwits Fire Camp got potable water supply - got 3 new wildland engines and permanent wildfire crew leader - new FIREPRO funded GS-6 wildfire foreman + seasonal wildfire clerk + 2 seasonal GS-5 wildfire foremen + 4 GS-4 ?seasonal firefighters - wildland firefighters take a 16 hour safety course - ?creating Master Ranger positions for EMS/Structure Fire/SAR - seek restrooms and showers at Callville Bay Fire Station for weekend Rescue 5 volunteers - put GPS in 5 VIP patrol boats and the Park aircraft (?Cessna plane) - all radio gear moved off Jumbo Peak and moved to Sacrifice Cliffs - seek more radio channels - installed BLM repeater on Virgin Peak to cover NE part of park - seek new repeater site for Meadview area - got approval to change Christmas Pass base station to a repeater - put Marine Channel 22A (157.10) on Perkins (UHF link) repeater for Lake Mohave - doing structural fire program review (may use more VFD and FD assets instead of NPS assets) - Calendar year 1996 saw 334 SAR incidents (4 fatal)
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1996 EMS Report shows 440 EMS incidents - 8 minor + 278 basic + 159 advanced + 5 advanced cardiac - 115 were transpoed by aircraft - 140 transpoed by vehicle - 1 transpoed by boat - 35 total fatalities (9 trauma + 5 medical + 21 non EMS intervention) - 395 saves (probably would have died without EMS assistance) - 5 vehicles dedicated to ambulance use - 38 permanent Level 4 EMS staff + 38 seasonal Level 4 EMS staff + 9 permanent Level 5 EMS + 9 seasonal Level 5 EMS (?80EMTs + 19 paramedics in the summer - half in the winter).
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May 16, 1999 NPS Morning Report - 4th drowning in 4 days - have Ranger/Divers - also had fatal MVA and car fire/bombing
?7/22/98 NPS Morning Report - Lake Mead NRA Fire Chief Bob Trodahl
7/8/98 NPS Morning Report - MVA had kid walk away with a fractured skull - found with family at campsite couple hours later
approx Sept 10, 1998 NPS Morning Report - 34th fatality this year - Sept 19 was the 35th fatality - have a NPS SAR team
from the 5/7/99 NPS Morning Report - - Katherine Landing boat fire got Katherine NPS Fire Brigade; plus Lake Mohave Resort (concessionaire) fire boat; plus floating pumps; plus 2 engines and 1 ambulance from the Bullhead City FD
NPS Morning Report - ?1998 or 1999 - EMS volunteers work on ?summer weekends in the park
?June 1999 - NPS Morn Report - ?34th fatality of the year
NPS Morning Report (www.nps.gov/morningreport) - July 7, 1999 - on July 4 had M48 drown - on July 5 had M59 die in boat accident + M19 die in hispeed MVA
July 21, 1999 - 4AM - motorcycle crash - 40 year old driver killed
Around July 30, 1999 - male 17 electrocuted/drowned due to electrical problem on a houseboat at a dock - his body was recovered by Katherine Landing ?concessioner divers
8/13/99 Morning Report - M37 drowned at Overton Beach on 8/8/99 - on 8/10/99 a small plane crashed into Eldorado Canyon killing the 51 year old male pilot and requiring a medevac of his passenger - this pilot was the 19th death this year in LAME
8/25/99 NPS Morning Report - 255PM on August 22 - M31 drowns on Boulder Basin District while swimming after eating a meal and drinking 2 beers - 3 rangers responded - 1 swam out 50 yards with a snorkel and recovered the victim - ALS was started - a Park ambulance took the victim to a helo which went to Henderson Hospital - the victim was pronounced dead shortly before 4PM - this is the 20th fatality of the year at Lake Mead NRA.
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Shivwits has a brush truck and ?3 summer seasonal NPS firefighters - they are hours away from any backup
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Info from www.nps.gov/morningreport
May 22, 2000 - M22 dove off cliff and drowned - cellular call to 911 - May 29, 2000 - M17 drowned swimming
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Monday, June 19, 2000 - Copyright � Las Vegas Review-Journal - Vandalism cited in fire at station ��-���Review-Journal ���-�� An early morning fire did minor damage on Sunday to the east entrance station at Lake Mead National Recreation Area. ����� The incident is thought to be an act of vandalism, according to the National Park Service. ����� The Henderson Fire Department and the Lake Mead staff responded to the call at about 4 a.m. ����� The fire blackened the inside of the fee collection building, burning the drywall and electrical wiring. The damage is expected to take several days to repair. ����� An investigation of the incident was under way.
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Updated - 4 June 2000 - 2 deaths - 19June00 - E Ent Fire