PORTLAND, Ore. – Four people scalded at Austin Hot Springs in the past several days are among the hundreds who trespass each year to gain access to the volcanically heated water that percolates from Oregon’s Clackamas River.

The soothing waters can be perilous and potentially deadly. A surge of 190-degree water can unexpectedly flow into the homemade soaking pools, causing life-threatening burns.

That may have been what caused burns to three adults and a child recently.

Details about the incidents are sketchy. The injuries apparently occurred over the past two weeks, and the victims were taken to Legacy Emanuel Hospital and Health Center in Portland by friends or family members, said Jim Strovink, Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office spokesman.

Kathleen Gorman, a Legacy spokeswoman, declined to disclose any information about the patients, citing federal privacy law.

Privately owned Austin Hot Springs is an attractive lure for those seeking a relaxing retreat. It is remote – in the Cascades Range 37 miles southeast of Estacada – but accessible, just off Oregon 224.

The J. Frank Schmidt Profit Sharing Trust owns the 152-acre property.

“People do know it’s private. We put up signs and they rip them down. We put up gates and they were down the next day,” said Jan Barkley, a Schmidt trustee.

She said the hot springs are off-limits to the public.

“We’ve gone to extreme measures” to keep people out, said Barkley, including digging trenches to prevent them from driving onto the property.

Austin Hot Springs has some determined devotees, said Mike Rysavy of Northwest Forest Conservancy, a nonprofit group that does a twice yearly cleanup of the site with Schmidt’s permission.

Trenches have been filled with rock, dirt and logs to bridge them, Rysavy said. And makeshift pools have been built using rocks to wall out the river.

“There are people who are diehards … and determined to make their soak there accessible and usable,” Rysavy said. “On a sunny weekend, it’s just packed.”

Austin Hot Springs’ water is some of the hottest in Oregon, said James Roddey, earth science information specialist at the state geology department.

The hot springs can be unpredictable, Rysavy said. Water near boiling temperature can emerge at any time.

“You’re soaking and, whoosh, you can have a hot upwelling come up underneath you,” he said.

The property, surrounded by the Mount Hood National Forest, has been privately owned for more than 100 years. At one time, it was used as a campground.

A developer, George Heidgerken, bought the land in 1985. He planned to build a resort featuring spring-fed hot tubs and swimming pools, a lodge and restaurant, but was unable to obtain financing. The Schmidt trust obtained the property in a foreclosure.

Barkley said that as far as she knows, hot-water injuries are rare at Austin.

“It’s unfortunate that it happened. It shouldn’t have. Our hearts go out to the families” of the injured, she said.