Officials are urging Arizonans to take precautions to avoid pavement burns this summer. Health care providers in the state have seen a steep uptick in these injuries over the last few years.
The Arizona Burn Center – Valleywise Health saw a record 157 patients with severe contact burns last summer. The center reports 30% of those patients needed ICU care. Most of the patients needed multiple surgeries. Thirteen patients died.
“So that’s a testament not only to the incidence of these injuries, but the severity of these injuries also,” said Arizona Burn Center Director Dr. Kevin Foster.
Foster said the increase in these injuries has reached crisis level.
“It’s all hands on deck from June through August here at the burn center,” Foster said.
Surface temperatures are often much hotter than air temperatures. These injuries can occur even on days when the high temperature is in the 80s. And Phoenix Fire Capt. Kimberly Ragsdale said contact burns can happen quickly.
“The pavement and sidewalk temperatures can be up near 140 to 170 [degrees], and at those temperatures, that can cause burns within 30 seconds,” Ragsdale said.
Ragsdale said contact burns often complicate other emergencies that the fire department responds to.
“You could be on a motorcycle or bike and have an accident and you’re making contact with the pavement,” Ragsdale said. “So now, we’re not only having to treat the primary injury, we’re also having to treat the secondary [burn] injury.”
Ragsdale said other examples of ways people get contact burns include older adults who lose balance and fall or people who collapse from drug use.
The Arizona Burn Center warns that injuries can become more dangerous the longer someone is in contact with a hot surface. Prolonged contact can raise someone's internal body temperature, which can lead to life-threatening heat stroke.
The Arizona Burn Center is partnering with the Arizona Department of Health Services this summer on a campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of contact burns. They are using social media posts and public service announcements to remind Arizonans to avoid going out in the hottest part of the day, wear sturdy footwear, be cautious around seatbelts or playground equipment that’s been in the sun, and seek medical care immediately for contact burns.
