A European tourist suffered third-degree burns to his feet after walking barefoot for a short time in the sand dunes of California’s Death Valley National Park over the weekend, park rangers said Thursday.
The visitor was rushed to a hospital in nearby Nevada, rangers said. Because of language barriers, they couldn’t immediately determine whether the 42-year-old Belgian man’s flip-flops had broken or been lost in the Mesquite Flat sand dunes during a short walk Saturday.
The ground temperature would have been much warmer than the air temperature that day, which was about 123°F (50.5°C). Death Valley National Park, located in the desert 194 feet (59 meters) below sea level near the California-Nevada border, has seen some of the hottest temperatures on record this summer.
The man’s family asked other visitors to help carry him to a parking lot, after which rangers drove him to higher ground where a medical helicopter could land safely in the frigid temperatures. He was airlifted to University Medical Center in Las Vegas.
The medical center runs the Lions Burn Center, which sees many patients from Nevada and parts of California during the summer with contact burns like the one the Belgian man suffered.
In urban areas of the desert Southwest, scorching hot surfaces like asphalt and concrete also pose a risk of devastating burns. The majority of patients at the Las Vegas burn center come from surrounding urban areas, where temperatures often exceed 100 degrees during the summer.
Burns from hot surfaces such as sidewalks, patios and playground equipment are also common in Arizona’s Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix.
Temperatures can also be dangerous in Death Valley, where a motorcyclist died of heatstroke earlier this month.
Big red stop signs are posted on the salt flats of the Badwater Basin valley, the lowest point in North America, after 10 a.m. warning visitors of the physical dangers of extreme heat.
Park rangers are warning summer visitors not to hike in the canyon at all after 10 a.m. and to stay within 10 minutes of an air-conditioned vehicle. Rangers recommend drinking plenty of water, eating salty snacks and wearing hats and sunscreen.
