A 20-year-old Washington woman suffered significant thermal burns from her shoulders to her feet on Monday afternoon at Yellowstone National Park after she rescued her dog from a thermal hot spring.
According to the park, the woman and her father exited their vehicle to look around the vicinity Fountain Flat Drive, south of Madison Junction, in the park. When they did, their dog jumped out of the car and into Maiden’s Grave Spring near the Firehole River.
The woman entered the hot spring to retrieve the dog. After her father pulled her out of the feature, he drove the party to West Yellowstone, Montana.
Yellowstone National Park rangers and Hebgen Basin Rural Fire District provided initial care to the woman at West Yellowstone. She was then transported to the Burn Center at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.
The dog was removed from the feature and the father intended to take it to a veterinarian. Its status is unknown currently.
This incident is under investigation and the park had no additional information to share as of Tuesday evening.
This is the second significant injury in a thermal area in 2021. The first occurred in September at Old Faithful when a 19-year-old woman left the boardwalk on the park and suffered second- and third-degree burns to 5% of her body.
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.
