Yellowstone victim likely ‘dissolved’ in boiling pool
‘HOT POTTING’: Man was checking temperature when fell into hot spring
AMAN, 23, who accidentally fell into a hot spring at the Yellowstone National Park and died, was dissolved in the boiling acidic waters, according to a report made public on Thursday.
Colin Nathaniel Scott, of Oregon, had gone to the park with his sister last June to “hot pot”, or soak, in the thermal pools.
He slipped and fell in as his sister filmed the accident on her mobile phone, according to a report of the incident obtained from park officials under a freedom-of-information request.
The report said the incident happened on June 7 after Scott and his sister, Sable Scott, went into a very dangerous area with boiling acidic waters. The area was clearly marked off-limits.
“There’s a closure in place to keep people from doing that for their own safety and also to protect the resources because they are very fragile,” Yellowstone deputy chief ranger Lorant Veress said.
“They were specifically moving in that area for a place that they could potentially get into and soak. “I think they call it ‘hot potting’.” Sable told authorities that her brother had reached down to check the temperature of the hot spring, when he slipped and fell in.
Rescuers found his body inside The Grand Prismatic Spring at the in Wyoming. A man accidentally fell into a hot spring here and died. Reuters pic
the pool but were unable to retrieve it because of a lightning storm, according to the report.
The next day, rescuers could find no remains. One of the few pieces of evidence recovered was the victim’s flip-flops, it said.
The most recent thermal fatality took place in 2000, when a 20-yearold park employee dove into a hot spring that she had mistaken for a stream. AFP