Rangers confirmed that the victim in Tuesday’s accident, Nathaniel Scott, had died and his body had yet to be recovered.
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A man is presumed dead after falling into hot spring at Yellowstone National Park yesterday, The Huffington Post reported.
Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk said visitors must keep to designated boardwalks when moving among the park’s hot springs and geysers that blast steaming water high into the air.
Officials say an OR man has died after leaving a boardwalk in a geyser basin at Yellowstone National Park and falling into a hot spring.
Officials said Wednesday that the safety of park personnel was a top concern during the search in the popular Norris Geyser Basin.
The incident occurred between 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. local time in the Norris Geyser Basin, Reid said. They recommend visitors do not leave trails in hydrothermal areas or approach wildlife.
“They’re scofflaws essentially, who look around and then head off the boardwalk”, he added.
Scott previously worked as a volunteer at the Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve in Oregon, said Mary Loftin, a manager at the Hillsboro, Oregon, parks and recreation department.
“A very nice young man; a bright spirit”, Loftin said.
Springs in that part of the park, where boiling water runs under thin rock, can see temperatures of up to 93C (199F).
At least 22 people are known to have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around Yellowstone since 1890, park officials said.
Each year some four million people visit Yellowstone, the first national park established in the United States.
With the National Park Service celebrating its 100th anniversary in August, officials expect record visitors to Yellowstone. “But it is certainly one that is tragic and preventable”, Reid said.
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Over the weekend, a 13-year-old boy burned his ankle and foot when he fell into a hot pool in Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin.
