I heard this on the radio yesterday... an 8 year old boy stepped in "quicksand" (not really) and his Crocs melted to his feet, all because the sun was so intense it heated a line coal shavings buried underground. Very bizarre.
Excerpts from an article in The Denver Post
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.
...
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.
...
He [the boy] 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.
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_9466387
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