Warning signs are there to keep people safe. Sure, there might be some signs warning out there in the world put up by lazy employees to keep people away from the break room, but in general when you see ‘WARNING’ that label is there to prevent you from imminent danger.
A 23-year-old from Portland, Oregon didn’t get this memo and a recent FOIA request unearthed the news that he literally melted himself to death after bathing in piping hot acid at Yellowstone National Park over the Summer while trying to ‘hot pot’. Hot Potting is the act of sneaking into hot springs with extreme temperatures and bathing for short periods of time, and something that happens often at Yellowstone. What doesn’t happen often is someone ignoring the warning signs and melting themselves in piping hot acid, something straight out of a horror film.
The Freedom of Information Act request turned up information on this death from last Summer, a death that was initially reported on with very murky details. It turns out that the victim’s sister had even recorded the incident on her cell phone. Thankfully, Yellowstone officials haven’t released any details about the video because I imagine it’s gruesome and morbid as hell.
via KULR8:
The report says Sable used her phone to record the journey to the hot spring. The report quotes her as saying she was shooting a video of her brother when the deadly accident happened, However, park officials would not release the video, or even a description of it.
Other areas of the report are redacted under the Privacy act. Veress said it was done out of sensitivity to the family.
The report did quote Sable as saying, “her brother was reaching down to check the temperature of a hot spring when he slipped and fell into the pool.”
Search and rescue rangers who arrived later did find the victim’s body in the pool, along with his wallet, and flip flops. But, a lightning storm stopped the recovery efforts. The next day, workers could not find any remains. Veress says the water was churning, and acidic.
This is one of the most disturbing stories I’ve come across in 2016, and 2016 has been a very fucked up year so far. He literally melted himself to death, no remains, by falling into a boiling hot spring in Yellowstone. If this were the opening scene of a Sci-Fi or horror film I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised, but this is real life, and it’s fucked up. I’d definitely say this incident qualifies for a 2016 ‘Darwin Award’ but I’ll let the panel of judges make the decision on that instead of nominating this man myself.
Next time you see a ‘WARNING’ sign you’d be wise to heed that advice.