It happens every year.
Late on Sunday, September 29, Cade Edmond Siemers, a 48-year-old U.S. citizen currently living in India, suffered severe burns to a significant portion of his body after falling into thermal water near the cone of Old Faithful Geyser. Rangers and paramedics responded to the Old Faithful Inn at midnight where Siemers was staying. He told rangers that he had gone for a walk off boardwalk without a flashlight and tripped into a hot spring. He got himself back to his hotel room and called for assistance. Rangers detected evidence of alcohol use.
Since rangers were not at the scene of the incident last night, they went out at first light this morning to investigate in the thermal area. They discovered several items near the geyser (the man’s shoe, hat, and a beer can), footprints going to and from the geyser, and blood on the boardwalk.
Hold my beer and watch this! It seems unlikely that he learned anything, but then, anything is possible. Idiocy can sometimes be painfully cured. But it's often fatal. There's a reason why you're supposed to stay on the walkways there.
This is the first serious injury in a thermal area in two years. 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.
Some folks just seem to have to learn the hot way.