An Oregon man who died in a Yellowstone National Park hot spring and dissolved when he fell into the boiling, acidic water, was looking to soak in the water, park officials said in a report.
The report, which followed a Freedom of Information Act request from KULR, found that Colin Scott, 23, was looking for a place to “hot pot,” or soak in the streaming waters—a practice forbidden by the park—with his sister in June. He “was reaching down to check the temperature of a hot spring when he slipped and fell into the pool,” the report said, quoting his sister Sable Scott.
Scott’s sister Sable filmed the whole thing on her cellphone, according to the report, but the video has not been released to the public.
An official said there are signs in the park that warn visitors not to fool around with its natural geothermal features. But the Scott siblings were allegedly trying to do just that, by looking for a place to take a dangerous dip, known as a “hot pot.”
Search and rescue rangers who looked for Scott found his body in the pool, along with his wallet and flip flops, but their recovery efforts were thwarted by a lightning storm. The next day, they could not find any remains because of the acidic water quality.
“In a very short order, there was a significant amount of dissolving,” Deputy Chief Ranger Lorant Veress told KULR.
Hot spring-related injuries have claimed at least 22 lives in and around Yellowstone since 1890, the Washington Post reported, citing park officials.
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