According to a National Park Service news release, the 42-year-old Belgian tourist was taking a short walk Saturday in the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in 123-degree heat when he either broke or lost his flip-flops, putting his feet into direct contact with the desert ground. The result: third-degree burns.
“The skin was melted off his foot,” said Death Valley National Park Service Ranger Gia Ponce. “The ground can be much hotter — 170, 180 [degrees]. Sometimes up into the 200 range.”
Unable to get out on his own and in extreme pain, the man and his family recruited other park visitors to help; together, the group carried him to the sand dunes parking lot, where park rangers assessed his injuries.
Though they wanted a helicopter to fly him out, helicopters can’t generate enough lift to fly in the heat-thinned air over the hottest parts of Death Valley, officials said. So park rangers summoned an ambulance that took him to higher ground, where it was a cooler 109 degrees and he could then be flown out.
Scenario: You’re barefoot on a hot 90C surface that extends as far as the eye can see. Pain, panic, confusion sets in. How long before you gain the clarity of mind to dump your backpack, yank off your shirt and wrap your feet? With no assistance, because nobody else has any idea why you’re screaming in pain.
Yes, your skin could absolutely fall off in that time.
It is not like someone magically transported the sandals out of his feet. It should have been a more continuous process in which he was probably already long made aware how fucking scorching hot the sand is.