Lake Mead on list of dangerous parks

Friday, June 1, 2001 | 10:22 a.m.

Lake Mead National Recreation Area is ranked as the seventh most dangerous national park because it does not have enough firefighters, a report produced by park rangers said today.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, which borders Mexico 120 miles west of Tucson, is the nation's most dangerous national park, the survey conducted by the Fraternal Order of Police chapter for park rangers said. The problems at Organ Pipe include illegal immigrants and drug smugglers crossing the border.

At Lake Mead, the recreation area only has enough firefighting personnel to adequately staff one of its six fire engines, the report said.

Although National Park Service spokesman Bert Byers said he had not seen the report, he said Lake Mead's visitors and deaths within the 1.4 million-acre recreation area had actually dropped.

So far this year six deaths have been reported, compared to 10 or 12 in the past two years, Byers said. One death was from natural causes, two were suicides and a third was the result of a motorist avoiding Boulder City Police and dying in a crash within the recreation area, Byers said. The other two deaths involved a drowning and a boating accident.

Visitors overall to Lake Mead have dropped, Byers said. In 1999 a total of 9.3 million people visited, but only 9 million in 2000.

The Memorial Day weekend attracted about 180,000 visitors this year, compared to 240,000 last year, he said.

The report named Yosemite National Park in California as the second most dangerous in the country because its staff has been cut as tourists continue to flood the park. During a fire at the Ahwahnee Hotel, for example, the report said rangers didn't have basic firefighting equipment.

The list of most dangerous parks was based on a survey of several hundred park rangers, but ultimately three leaders of the organization handpicked the results. Other studies have found the parks are still safer than cities.

The Associated Press

contributed to this story.