A 21-year-old North Carolina man has been rushed to a hospital after being severely burned after a fall into a Yellowstone National Park hot spring on late Tuesday.

The incident, which occurred in the Lower Geyser Basin off Fountain Flat Drive is just north of the Old Faithful area.

The man has been identified as Gervais Dylan Gatete, a Xanterra Parks and Resorts employee from Raleigh. He was with seven other people when he fell.

The group began driving Gatete to receive medical aid, but just before midnight they flagged down a ranger near Seven Mile Bridge on the West Entrance Road.

The staff provided medical assistance and transported the 21-year-old to the airport in West Yellowstone in an ambulance. He was then flown to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City.

A spokesperson for the hospital said that he was in critical, but stable condition.

Since the rangers were not present at the scene when Gatete fell into hot spring, it is not yet clear where ad how it occurred. The investigation is still going on.

“Yellowstone’s thermal features are dangerous,” said park superintendent Dan Wenk. “We continually stress that people must stay on trails and boardwalks in geyser basins, not only to protect resources, but for their own safety.”

The ground in hydrothermal areas is fragile and thin, and there is scalding water just below the surface.

The incident marks the first critical injury in a thermal area this year in Yellowstone. In June last year, a 23-year-old Oregon tourist Colin Scott left the boardwalk and died after slipping into a hot spring in Norris Geyser Basin.

Back in the year 2000, a man died after he and two others received severe burns from falling into a hot spring in the Lower Geyser Basin.

AMandeep