Burn Awareness Week and scald prevention

Approximately every minute, someone in the United States sustains a burn injury serious enough to require treatment.

Burn Awareness Week, observed the first full week in February, is a time for Yuma Fire Department, to educate the community on the dangers of burn injuries.

For this year’s awareness week, YFD is focusing on scalding burns.

YFD is also looking to discuss the psychological effects burn injuries can have on young children.

They hope to teach all members of the family, the devastation burns can cause to the body and mind.

“Burn awareness week is the week that’s dedicated to educating the people of the country about burns their causes their prevention first aid,” Evancho said.

Paul Evancho, a fire captain with Yuma Fire Department, says being burned can be a devastating injury for children.

“It’s a devastating injury, it’s an injury that causes damage to the body, we often tell people that the psychological effects of a burn on especially children are sometimes worse than the physical injuries themselves,” he said.

According to the American Burn Association, “each day over 300 children are seen in emergency rooms and 2 children die from burn injuries.”

Funded by the community, the Yuma Child burn survivors is a local group looking to decrease this statistic.

“We find these children at the burn hopefully or shortly thereafter, we will walk them through the process, this is where we go, this is who we talk to, this is what you can expect here,” Evancho said.

YFD intends to care for the children and their families by providing them with shelter and proper medical treatment.

In addition, they teach other students how to avoid getting burned.

“Before these kids go back to school we’ll go to the school and we will address the entire school and will say ‘hey this is what happened to Susie’, explain the burn, explain the burn prevention, or the burn process,” Evancho said.

Some children who have suffered from burn wounds experience bullying, making it harder for them to want to go to school.

Some children have a longer healing process than normal; however, Evancho says YFD intends to meet the individual needs of each child.

Evancho says young children and elderly people are most at risk for bad burn injuries.

The ABA says each day over 300 children are seen in emergency rooms and 2 children die from burn injuries.

“The infants their skin is at such a growing stage it’s very delicate, very fragile, as in the older the geriatric group their skin is frail it tears easily, it’s thinner,” Evancho said.

Young children are most susceptible to scalding or contact injuries in the kitchen.

According to the ABA, between 2013-2017, an estimated 376,950 scald burn injuries associated with consumer household appliances were seen in hospital emergency rooms.

21% of these occurred to children 4 years old and younger.

“A lot of times children are pulling things off of the stove parents are cooking, or caregivers are cooking and the child will pull something off the stove, their standing in front of it, it comes usually on the face and it comes down, devastating injuries there,” Evancho said.

Evancho suggests turning pot handles inward and using back burners on the stove.

Another common place for burns to occur is in the bath, when children may accidentally turn the hot water knob to a burn risk temperature.

Evancho suggests turning the water heater to no more than 120 degrees.

Because our skin is our largest organ, skin burns at risk to become infected.

“When somebody is burned, and you have that injury to the skin like you said, the skin is the largest organ in the body and once we breach that it’s an invitation for infection,” Evancho said.

According to Evancho, 3rd-degree burn injuries should not be ignored.

“If we are in a full thickness burn and there is scarring, and there is actual skin damage that you can see, we don’t want to put anything on that, if you find somebody that is severely burned and is not in pain that is a very serious situation because sometimes those burns will go right through your nerve endings,” he said.

In order to decrease the chances of burns in the case of a home fire, Evancho suggests getting your family together to make an exit drill in your home, or EDITH.

This will decrease the chances of being separated or going in to save someone in a burning home only for it to be empty

On February 23 at 8 A.M., the Yuma Area Firefighters will be hosting a golf tournament to benefit the care of the Yuma Child Burn Survivors.

If you have a burned child and need help, or if you would like more information on the Yuma Child Burn Survivors, you can contact Paul at YFD.