Gird your loins! At least 50 scalded by boiling water trick



CHICAGO -- It is, theoretically, a really cool gimmick. If you were in the Midwest when temperatures plunged to about 30 degrees below zero this week, it was probably cold enough to throw boiling water into the air and watch it freeze in midair.


An ABC News reporter did just that on the air. So did a pair of TV meteorologists in Lexington, Ky.

"All you have to do is bundle up, get some boiling water, and throw it out in the subzero temperatures and see what happens," one broadcaster in North Dakota said.



"Threw a pot of boiling water in the air. Kids thought it was awesome," Jason DeRusha, a WCCO-TV anchor in Minneapolis, tweeted to his followers on Sunday. "Do it, people."

And boy, did people do it.

Over Monday and Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times counted at least 50 people on social media who reported burning themselves or their friends after trying to turn boiling water into snow. There were also several reports of people going to the hospital to receive treatment for burns.

"I'm working in the ER today &this woman just got 2nd degree burns from trying to freeze boiling water into the air!" one user tweeted.


For more on this LA Times story, click here.