Yellowstone Insider Your Complete Guide to America's First National Park
A 19-year-old concessions employee suffered second- and third-degree burns to 5 percent of her body during an early-morning incident Thursday.
National Park Service officials are not releasing the employee’s name. She hails from Rhode Island.
After park rangers responded to a call for help, the concessions emplopyee was taken by ambulance to West Yellowstone and then life-flighted to the Burn Center at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.
Accidents like this are not uncommon, but this is the first significant injury in a thermal area in 2021. In 2020, a three-year-old suffered second-degree-thermal burns to the lower body and back and a visitor (who illegally entered the park) fell into a thermal feature at Old Faithful while backing up and taking photos. In September 2019, a man suffered severe burns after falling into thermal water near the cone of Old Faithful Geyser. In June 2017, a man sustained severe burns after falling in a hot spring in the Lower Geyser Basin. In June 2016, a man left the boardwalk and died after slipping into a hot spring in Norris Geyser Basin. In August 2000, one person died and two people received severe burns from falling into a hot spring in the Lower Geyser Basin.
