An 8-year-old boy out walking with family members in Colorado Springs severely burned part of his foot on a patch of “coal spoil” that was 800 degrees Fahrenheit.
The boy, who was not named by authorities, suffered excruciating pain from the injury Monday and was treated by paramedics with a morphine IV, said Sandy Friedman, a spokesman with the Colorado Springs Fire Department.
Firefighters and others, including staff with the Colorado Geological Survey, responded to the city-owned park area in the Rockrimmon section of town and used a thermal-imaging device to measure 800-degree heat radiating from the 4-foot diameter patch.
John Leavitt, a Colorado Springs spokesman, said a geologist with the state determined that a “waste pile of coal dust” was super-heated by sunlight.
“We knew there had been coal-seam fires in Colorado and that Rockrimmon is an old coal-mining area of Colorado Springs,” said Leavitt.
Leavitt said there was “no indication of matches” or an “errant cigarette butt” igniting the patch.
“It is odd, considering how long it must have been sitting there,” Leavitt said. “It was bizarre.”
The boy, who suffered a second-degree burn, was taken Monday to Memorial Health System Central. Details on his condition were not available.
He described the ground he stepped on as “quick sand.”
The boy was wearing Crocs, and the distinctive breathing holes in one of the resin shoes expanded from the heat and its sole melted down to a fabric mesh, Friedman said.
“Indeed, we did have a very significant hot spot,” Friedman said.
Responders roped off the area, near Rockrimmon Boulevard and Delmonico Drive, and firefighters doused the hot spot with water, Friedman said, bringing the patch down to 250 degrees while keeping a close eye on the surface overnight.
Fire officials went through the neighborhood alerting business and homeowners Monday that there was a nearby “hot spot.” Some townhomes are within 70 feet of the patch, which sits in a field of scrub and brush.
Friedman said and officials planned to cover the coal spoil with about 3 feet of topsoil to keep it cooler and safe.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
