Burn Injury Resource Center

Published on: March 31, 2011

Alarming News About the Effectiveness of Smoke Detectors

Researchers at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia conducted a study among school-age children to see how effective a smoke detector was in waking them up in the event of fire. Unfortunately, the results were frightening, and a serious wake-up call for parents, firefighters, and to fire-safety educators alike.

The study, whose results were publicized recently in the industry journal Fire and Materials, asked the parents in 80 families to activate the smoke detector in their home after their children had been asleep between one and three hours. The 123 children who were in the study were divided into two groups, based on which children had reached puberty and which did not. The reason for this: Levels of the hormone melatonin, which helps induce sleep, go down once children reach puberty. So it would seem that younger children would be deeper into sleep, and perhaps less likely to be awakened by an alarm.

That proved to be true–but it did not mean that most of the older children heard the alarm, either. In fact,, 78 percent of all the kids that were studied slept through a smoke detector’s alarm that was blaring for at least 30 seconds. What’s more, parents reported that of the 22 percent of children who did wake up, only half of them identified the noise as a smoke detector, and just one-fourth of them even knew that a smoke detector’s noise means to get out of the house immediately. And while the younger kids were likeliest to sleep through the alarm (87 percent of them!), 56 percent of the 11- to 15-year-olds also slept through the piercing noise.

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Published on: March 29, 2011

The Clothes Dryer: A Frequent Source of Fire and Severe Burns

By Larry Kramer

I was watching TV the other day when, believe it or not, a commercial caught my attention. (It seems that everyone else has a digital recording device, so they can skip the commercials. But I was glad that day that I don’t have DVR, or I would not have seen this informative commercial.)

Anyway, the commercial was for an insurance company that offers coverage for the home. In it, the actors stand in front of a giant ball of lint–the type of lint that comes from washing and drying your clothes–and then one of the actors lights the ball on fire. The ball, which was larger than the actors, becomes engulfed in flames almost instantly. Then one of the actors says, “Did you know that 15,000 fires start in clothes dryers each year?” That’s a pretty big number.

But as I thought about that a bit more, that number became even more terrifying. Why? Because most of the time, a clothes dryer is turned on and left alone for 45 minutes or more, until its timer runs out on its own. So that means that there are thousands of times each year where people go to sleep, or are doing things on the other side of their home, when the dryer is running. And if people are not diligent about cleaning out the lint trap frequently, it is very easy for the dryer to catch fire. What’s more, the lint and the clothes inside the machine will go up in flames in an instant, and possibly engulf the room and the rest of the house before the occupants know what is happening.

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Published on: March 25, 2011

Survivor Story

By Larry Kramer

In 1996 there was a devastating fire where a church deacon lost his life when his

apartment was set on fire by suspected drug dealers. Jackie, his wife and her3 children survived, but were seriously injured. Jackie suffered severe smoke inhalation and burns to her arms. Her oldest daughter also suffered from smoke inhalation along with 2nd & 3rd degree burns to her arms and legs. The youngest daughter and son who was 3 years old miraculously managed to escape with minor injuries.

After an extended period in the Burn Unit, Jackie and her daughter went home. However, the oldest daughter would require additional surgery at some point.

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Published on: March 24, 2011

Smoking in Bed: Some People Don’t Learn Until They Are Burned

By Larry Kramer

On March 20, the Chicago Sun Times reported that two people were injured when a fire started in an apartment at a Chicago Housing Authority senior citizens building. One person suffered minor smoke inhalation, but an elderly man suffered second- and third-degree burns, all because of a cigarette that touched a mattress and caused it to catch fire.

Firefighters were called at about 1 a.m. to the 14th floor of the building at 1633 W. Madison St. The building is the Patrick Sullivan Apartments, a Chicago Housing Authority senior-living building, according to an address directory. While the first was small and contained only to the bedroom, the smoke was so thick that firefighters evacuated every apartment on the 14th floor.

There are a few lessons to be remembered from this incident. First: Smoking in or near a bed is a terrible idea. If even a small ash lands on a mattress, it can ignite the entire bed in seconds, giving you no time to avoid being burned or having your clothes catch fire. What’s more, mattresses generate a lot of smoke quickly, so someone can be overwhelmed in seconds by smoke that’s inside a bedroom.

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Published on: March 22, 2011

Survivor Story: Face Transplant Gives Victim of Severe Burns Another Chance

By Larry Kramer

The Associated Press reported today that a Texas construction worker, whose face was completely disfigured by third-degree burns suffered when he fell into an electrical power line, successfully underwent the nation’s first full face transplant in a Boston hospital last week.

Dallas Wiens, 25, received a new nose, lips, skin, muscle and nerves from a recently-deceased person. The operation was paid for by the United States armed forces, which is trying to learn more about how to help soldiers who suffer disfiguring facial wounds.

In March 2010, doctors in Spain performed the first full face transplant in the world on a farmer who was accidentally shot in the face, and could not breathe or eat on his own.

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Published on: March 21, 2011

Radiation and its Effect on the Body and the Skin

By Larry Kramer

Damage to nuclear power plants in Japan caused by the earthquake and tsunami caused concerns and panic not only among the general public in Japan but also around the world including the people in the U.S.

United States measures radiation dose by the REM unit (Roentgen Equivalent Man), the doses are commonly reported in millirem (mrem) which equals to 1000 of a rem. Japan measures radiation dose by the Sieverts unit (Sv) and doses are commonly reported in milliSieverts which equals to 1000 of a Sievert. Japan imposed a 12 mile evacuation zone around the plant as well as advising residents living within 18 miles to leave the area if they could or to stay indoors and make their homes airtight.

Exposure to radiation can cause radiation sickness. Radiation sickness also known as acute radiation sickness and acute radaition syndrum (ARS) is defined as damage to the body when the body is exposed to a high dose of penetrating radiation often received over a short period of time, the severity of the symptoms depend on the amount of radiation absorbed by the body.

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Published on: March 17, 2011

Severe Burns from Radiation: Lessons from Cancer Treatments

By Larry Kramer

With Japan suffering through a national health scare over the leaking of radiation from its tsunami-damaged nuclear power plants, the topic of radiation sickness and radiation burns has made it front and center in the newspapers and TV news programs.

But the most common sources of radiation burns are the sun, and treatments for cancer. First, repeated sunburns means repeated radiation exposure, which damages skin cells so much that the possibility of getting carcinoma, melanoma, or other skin cancer is significant among people who do not take precautions to protect their skin from the sun.

Ironically, for people who have breast, cancer, colon cancer, and other types, radiation therapy is often used to stop malignant tumors from growing and spreading, and eventually killing them. But this treatment often results in radiation burns.

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Published on: March 15, 2011

Inspiration and Hope Comes from a Victim of Severe Burns

By Larry Kramer

From a story that makes most good people wonder why there is such evil in the world comes a lesson that anyone who is burned, injured, or otherwise ill can look to as hope for themselves.

In South Florida back in February, a 10-year-old boy named Victor was deliberately doused with chemicals by his adoptive father and left to die. Fortunately, the boy was spotted in the front seat of his father’s pickup truck by a passerby, who called police. Victor had third-degree burns from the chemicals, and it did not seem likely that he would live.

He spent weeks at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, at first barely conscious but over time responding to treatments and making progress. Almost as important, his mental state was aided by the bonds he made with other patients–and in return, those bonds also aided the psyche of each patient who interacted with Victor while he was in the hospital.

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Published on: March 10, 2011

Here’s Another Good Source for Preventing Fires and Third-Degree Burns at Home

By Larry Kramer

While we writers on this blog always try to give useful lessons on everything from preventing second- and third-degree burns, smoke inhalation, and other injuries that come from fires, hot liquids, hot surfaces, and even the sun, we sometimes come across other really good sources of information that we want to pass along to you.

For instance, I saw an article this week on www.SafetyAtHome.com about making your home safer not only by being more aware of fire hazards and possible obstacles to escape, but also by teaching your children about fire prevention and what they should do if a fire starts in the home without their parents’ knowledge.

This topic is especially relevant as the entire nation mourns the loss of 7 small children in a house fire in rural Pennsylvania this week. The children were in the house while the mother was in a nearby barn, milking cows. By the time one of the kids ran to get mom to tell her about the smell of smoke in the house, the mother was unable to get the other children out of the house because of the speed of the fire. It’s a truly terrible story.

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Published on: March 8, 2011

Smoke Alarms Can Prevent Death from Third-Degree Burns or Smoke Inhalation

By Larry Kramer

Two deadly fires in the past week are perfect examples of why working smoke detectors are literally life-saving items that every home or apartment should have.

First, a fire in a high-rise apartment building in Philadelphia left two firefighters hospitalized, one in serious condition. The fire department responded to the early-morning blaze at an 18-story Philadelphia Housing Authority building and cleared scores of residents out. Smoke and flames poured from windows on the building’s eighth floor before the fire was doused.

The American Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania helped about 150 residents with shelter, clothing, and food. The good news is that the worst outcome for any of the tenants was damage to their apartments and property–but nobody suffered bad smoke inhalation or third-degree burns.

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