A man is dead after falling into a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park Tuesday, and almost instantly melting to death in in front of horrified tourists, park officials said.
Witnesses saw a man in his early 20s walk off the boardwalk in the Norris Geyser Basin area and fall into the thermal spring about 225 yards away. Rangers said the man died because he hasn’t been located and searchers are being extra cautious because of the spring’s dangerous thermal features.
The Norris Geyser Basin is the hottest and most dynamic thermal area in Yellowstone, which features springs that can reach temperatures up to 200 degrees Celsius. The basin was closed soon after the incident, the Billings Gazette reported.
Tuesday’s search comes on the heels of several other high-profile incidents at the park.
On Saturday, a 13-year-old boy was burned around his ankle and foot after his father, who had been carrying him, slipped in the park’s Upper Geyser Basin hot spring.
In May, a Canadian film crew was accused of leaving an established boardwalk and stepping onto a geothermal feature where they snapped photos and took video of themselves.