PHOENIX — This heat is brutal. Just imagine falling on the pavement when it's at least 40 degrees hotter than the ambient temperature.
That’s the case now, and if your skin makes contact with the pavement for even a couple of minutes, it’s enough to cause severe burns.
"The heat is very dangerous,” Phoenix Fire Captain Kimberly Ragsdale told ABC15.
Ragsdale says the heat claims lives every summer, and this one is no exception.
"We're seeing people with heat stroke, heat exhaustion, dehydration, and we are seeing an increase to burn injuries to the skin,” she added.
Ragsdale says these are burn injuries from people falling on the pavement or falling asleep on it.
"We've had multiple days over 100º and no reprieve at night," Captain Ragsdale told ABC15.
That's what medical professionals are seeing more of at the Arizona Burn Center at Valleywise Health.
The director of burn services there says all 45 beds are full and a third of patients are people who fell and burned themselves on the ground.
There are also burn patients in the intensive care unit and about half of those are people burned after falls.
"You can walk outside, and your flip-flop can melt. Your shoe can melt. And so definitely any exposed skin can be susceptible to a burn injury in the summer months," said Ragsdale.
The reality is, if you have bare skin on the pavement for even 10 to 20 minutes, the skin can be destroyed, leaving behind injuries consistent with house fire survivors.
"We can have first, second and third-degree burns from the pavement. First is more like a redness. You'll see blisters with a second degree. And then third degree is full thickness, so it goes through multiple layers of the skin," added Ragsdale.
They always recommend that if you get burned on the pavement, go to the hospital to get checked out.
Adding, in this heat, it's important to look out for one another and be mindful of your pets.
