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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Whether it's saving a stranded hiker with a broken leg or fishing out a capsized boater, a new study says national parks launch 11 search-and-rescue operations on an average day.
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The Glen Canyon National Park Service responded to a 911 call about a houseboat fire near Gunsight Butte around 4 p.m. Rangers arrived to find the vessel engulfed in flames.Travis Heggie, an assistant professor at the University of North Dakota who headed up the study, analyzed search-and-rescue reports from 1992 to 2007, when there were more than 65,000 operations in national parks with costs exceeding $58 million.
Those most commonly in need of help? Day hikers, young men and boaters. Weekends were the busiest.
The results are similar to an earlier analysis by Heggie of national parks in Utah, which found young men on day hikes were among the most likely to need a rescue.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
