A young child suffered serious burns when it fell into a small thermal feature near the Midway Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park/NPS file

A 3-year-old suffered serious burns Friday when the child ran down a trail near the Midway Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park and fell into a small thermal feature.

According to a park release, the unidentified child suffered second-degree burns to its lower body and back when it fell into the thermal feature near the Fountain Freight Road that runs close to the geyser basin shortly before noon. Due to the injuries, the child was flown to the burn center at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho. 

No further details were available on the child's family or hometown.

Yellowstone holds the world's greatest collection of thermal features, with some 10,000. The park enables safe viewing of hot springs, geysers, mudpots, and fumaroles through the use of boardwalks, defined trails, and patrolling rangers. Stray from a boardwalk or trail and you risk breaking through thin surface crusts rimming the features and being dropped into, or stumbling into, boiling, acidic waters.

Park staff note that ground in Yellowstone's hydrothermal areas "is fragile and thin, and there is scalding water just below the surface."

This is the second significant injury in one of the park's thermal areas this year. In May a visitor who illegally entered the park while it was closed due to Covid-19 fell into a thermal feature at Old Faithful while backing up and taking photos. The park still has not released details regarding that incident, including the individual's name, condition, or whether they were cited for trespassing in the park when it was closed.

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. 

Park visitors die more often from falling into Yellowstone's thermal features than from grizzly bear attacks, according to long-time park historian Lee Whittlesey.

"...hot springs deaths have ocurred much more commonly in Yellowstone National Park than have grizzly bear deaths," Whittlesey wrote in his book, Death In Yellowstone, Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park. "The park has around 10,000 hot springs, geysers, mudpots, and steam vents scattered over its mountain plateau. Though collectively called thermal features today, all are technically hot springs. Most are hotter than 150 degrees F and many reach temperatures of 185-205 degrees F."