Victim suffers ‘pretty significant’ burns after fall onto hot pavement in Modesto
Emergency medical responders treated a person for burns to the hands and feet caused by hot pavement after the victim fell outside a residence in the Scenic Drive area on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Modesto Fire Department.
Though the fall victim was on the ground for a “relatively short” length of time, being down on asphalt resulted in “pretty significant” burns to the hands and tops of the feet, Modesto Fire Department Battalion Chief Ryan Winton said. The person — age and gender were not available — received initial care at the scene and was taken to an emergency room for additional treatment.
It hadn’t been determined whether the fall itself was related to the person being out in the heat. The call about an injured fall victim came shortly before 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, still a few hours from the day’s peak temperature of 100 degrees, which was recorded by the Modesto Irrigation District at 6 and 7 p.m.
But at 2:30, the temperature was between 95 and 97 degrees, MID data show. The website of an Arizona asphalt company, Sunrise Asphalt, says, “Asphalt by its nature absorbs lots of heat. The dark color doesn’t reflect the light back into the environment but stores all as heat, and since the structure of asphalt is dense, it retains that hear for longer. Asphalt can be 40-60 degrees hotter than the surrounding air temperature. So those common 100-plus summer days can mean we’re moving about on a surface as hot as 160 degrees!”
Spending just a few minutes barefoot on asphalt can result in burns or blisters, the company site says. Information on the type of footwear the victim was wearing was not available.
An article last summer on the website of The Weather Channel quotes a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, School of Medicine doctor as saying super-hot pavement can cause second-degree burns within two seconds.
The article also cited “A 5-Year Review of Pavement Burns From a Desert Burn Center,” published in the July-August issue of the Oxford Academic Journal of Burn Care & Research, which found: “The risk of pavement burns in areas of direct sunlight begins around 95°F and increases exponentially as ambient temperatures rise.”
The review found that of 173 pavement-related burn cases identified between 2013 and 2017, 149 resulted from walking or falling on hot pavement.
In mild weather, Tuesday’s incident might have been a “pretty typical EMS call for a fall victim,” Winton said. “Sometimes we will treat the person right there on the ground, but not these days. In weather like they’re talking about today (Wednesday), the asphalt can reach a pretty significant temperature.”
The National Weather Service forecast for Wednesday is for a high temperature of 105 degrees, which would shatter the record heat the Modesto Irrigation District has recorded for the date: 100 degrees in 1984.
Tuesday’s high in Modesto wasn’t a record, but it came close. The peak temperature for May 26, according to MID records back to 1939, was 102 degrees, set in 1951.
Wednesday is expected to be the hottest day of this week, according to the National Weather Service forecast.
Thursday will be nearly as bad, with a predicted high near 104. Then a cooling trend will continue, with expected highs of near 96 Friday, 84 Saturday, 83 Sunday, 82 Monday and 83 Tuesday.
For advice on beating the heat, see the weather service’s summer safety rules at www.weather.gov/oun/safety-summer-summersafety.
This story was originally published May 27, 2020 at 8:03 AM.
