Analysis of the transient depletion of a 10.6‐&mgr;m laser beam inn‐InSb at 2 K observed by Figueira, Cantrell, Rink, and Forman shows that the observed depletion is not due to causes such as lattice heating, depletion by other nonlinear processes, or optical damage. Simple estimates are presented which show that a 10.6‐&mgr;m laser pulse of the intensity and duration of that used by Figueiraetal. will heat the conduction electrons very strongly, leading to a transient increase in carrier concentration and conductivity, and a corresponding increase in optical absorption.