I was not with my friend when this happened.

A friend of mine had an unfortunate accident.

He had a legal burn permit for a large brush pile, about the size of a normal house.  He poured gasoline on the brush.  With cooler temps and damp weather, the fumes did not rise and were somewhat trapped.  Standing about 30’ from the brush pile, he threw a burning stick into the brush.  The brush pile exploded.  He turned his back to it and held his breath and rolled, but was engulfed in flames for maybe 10 seconds.

He called 911 and they arrived in about 1 hour, fortunately he had cell service.

He suffered 2nd degree burns on his legs, possibly 3rd degree burns on the back of his legs and some small burns to his face.  He is currently being treated at a burn center and now has about a year of recovery ahead of him.

He was told that holding his breath may have saved his life as he would have burned his lungs.

@GlutealCleft said to keep a burn victim hydrated.  My friend told me he drinks gallons of water and will wake up with his bed soaked.  I did not understand that that your bodies hydration seeps from your wounds.

He did not have any medical supplies with him.

Do not make any mistakes out there, especially with gasoline.

Send him a prayer if you would please.

Day 2:

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I may have missed this topic, but I don't see it discussed much.

We can all handle a little burn, but what and how do you treat a serious burn if medical help is not available immediately?

Vaseline Gauze

I don't have any on hand but Silvadene is what the ER will put on most burns. It helps cool the area and is bacteriostatic to help decrease the likelihood of infection.

It can be covered with nonstick pads like Telfa and wrapped loosely with gauze. I would also add a little debriding kit consisting of iris scissors and tweezers if it is going to be a while before you get to definitive help.

No longer recommended. Although Vaseline gauze SHOULD be sterile the other issues remain.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC286261/

Silvadene cream/ointment and clean gauze

First aid/burn cream has been coming in my work kits for many years now, changed some time back.  It is an antiseptic pain relief with aloe, active ingredients benzalkonium chloride 0.13%, lidocaine HCL 0.5%.

used for minor cuts scrapes and burns.

Neosporin and bandages.  Keep it sterile and covered, and keep them drinking.

Thank you for the replies.

This is something I need to study up on.

Gel-soaked dressings, they come in a variety of sizes (some quite large, like 12x16" for torso burns) and some include 2% lido for additional pain relief.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079TC7WP8?tag=arfcom00-20

ETA: they also work nicely to soothe skin irritation from reactions to things like plants and solvents.

X2

My kid accidentally rubbed up against a hot grill and got a bit of a burn on her arm. This is what we used wrapped with medical tape. Worked really well.

Great information from the same government that thinks this is a woman.
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20 year old cite (2003) out of London that references a piece of 34 year old research  done in 1989?? Seems like some poor soul in a third world country didn’t cool the burn off with cool water and just slathered up a kid with Vaseline. Then says Vaseline can still be used to treat minor burns….

The burn gel is amazing but other folks still recommend Vaseline for minor burns. Including the Dr from London who suggested we don’t slather up kids with serious burns in Vaseline 20 years ago.

Major burns would be a major problem the gel burn dressings, and evac if serious enough.

Burnaid

This stuff is good .

Saline.

Lidocaine burn gel.  I also have some stronger lidocaine gel to follow up with if necessary.  The OTC lidocaine burn gel really works for pain, I get mine from Chinook Med.  Highly recommend it for dads with sons that do boy stuff like play with matches ride gas buggies.

Triple antibiotic.

Some legit burn gauze for profound burns.

I'm in the Vaseline camp.  Not applied to the burn, but to moisten generic gauze if burn gauze is not available, very light application to the gauze.  I don't expect Vaseline to have any benefit other than preventing air exposure when I don't want it and preventing the gauze from sticking to a weeping blister.  I've had to do this once, four year old climbed up on a four wheeler with his bare foot on the exhaust.  Very bad burn, not quite profound, but it worked out okay.

Start applying liquid vitamin E and antibiotic mix when initial pain subsides and the would can be kept clean, pretty much when you get home.  Helps a lot with the recovery.

That article is 20 years old.

I transferred a 35% burn pt a few months ago to our Level 2, and Vaseline gauze is exactly what they used.

Also, neosporin isn't preferred,  as one of the antibiotics can cause bad skin reactions.  Just get the regular bacitrin ointment.

Thanks for all the information.

I ordered some of the items that were mentioned in this thread from North American Rescue.

WaterJel, WaterJel dressings, and Silverlon wraps/dressings. Also, a giant jar or two of silver sulfadiazine cream that I replace every year.

Bump to the top.

Pretty knawrly update.

I'd have killed most of my big bottle of lidocaine gel and burn gauze on that, and that's only the legs.

I'll pray for your friend.  Hopefully he'll come along quick.  Tell him to use diesel next time.

Post links?

same thing happened to an acquaintance of mine once.  general surgeon at that.

brush piles, gasoline and combustion sources are no joke.

Gasoline is far too volatile....diesel fuel is what should be used...if that is too slow, add 5-10% gas in the diesel fuel and DON'T let it sit and vaporize.

I had a coworker that did this, only it was his step-son that got burned badly...and he said he knew better but wasn't thinking clearly (I suspect it was due to his love of alcohol). Volatile chemicals are no mix for open air fires.

Right. No goo of any kind.  It all has to be scrubbed off.  A nightmare.

This is a good start. If it beyond the severity of treating with these +other common medical supplies and you can't get to help in a reasonable amount of time, the outcome will be unfavorable.

A close family member received major burns, requiring grafts and a ton of daily debriding (also a brush fire but no volatile flammables used, it was in a pit). A cold stainless table while undergoing daily wound debridement is as close to hell on earth as I can imagine. The burn unit used the telfa pads, silvadene, etc. Not sure how easy it is to buy the rolls of silvadene impregnated gauze rolls in foil packs if you don't work inside the medical field but that is the stuff you want IMO.

Where are you guys getting silvadene? Looks like it's prescription only.

Flamazine.

Not necessarily the topic in thee OP, but due to some experiences with gas on brush piles I've switched my lighting methods.  I was previously dumping multiple gallons of gas into the pile and tossing a road flare.  The occasional explosion when it ignited would kick flaming stuff all over the place to include towards me.

I'll still dump waste motor oil, but nothing like gas.

Instead I'll use one of those fake duraflame logs and a few pieces of regular firewood.  Top down method if i plan it out right.  A little more boring, but cheaper than gas and safer.

From UpToDate:



Superficial burn wounds — Superficial burn wounds (superficial [epidermal], superficial partial thickness) are covered with dressing materials that aid with skin healing and reepithelialization. In general, superficial burns do not require antimicrobial therapy, but for extensive superficial burns, topical antimicrobials may be used to prevent colonization while maintaining a moist wound healing environment. Furthermore, because superficial partial-thickness burns may not always be easily distinguished from deeper injuries, topical antimicrobial agents are often used. We generally start with a combination antimicrobial ointment or creme (eg, Polysporin) covered with a nonadherent dressing (eg, Xeroform, Adaptic, Mepitel). When in close proximity to the eyes, we use an ophthalmic ointment without steroids. (See "Treatment of superficial burns requiring hospital admission", section on 'Our approach'.)

Deep burn wounds — Deep burn wounds (deep partial thickness, full thickness, and deeper) require burn wound excision and graft/flap coverage. The deep burn wound site may often constitute a mixed pattern of injury with differing permeability and compromised barrier function. The role of topical agents at these wound sites is to delay the onset of an invasive infection prior to early surgical excision of nonvital tissue. The challenge is that many of these products hamper the ability of the burn team to evaluate the quality, extent, and depth of injury. As such, prior to definitive care and burn wound excision, a preliminary gauze dressing is often first applied. Excising full-thickness eschar removes the biologic and bacterial burden, decreasing morbidity and mortality while facilitating the efficacy of wound dressings, biologics, biosynthetics, and definitive coverage. Following eschar debridement and/or excision, if grafting will not take place immediately, for interim wound management, fine mesh gauze in combination with topical antimicrobials, typically silver-containing agents or dressings (eg, Silvadene, Sulfamylon, Acticoat), is used to provide a moist and minimally adherent provisional dressing until definitive debridement or surgical excision can be performed. Provisional coverage with allograft, biologics, and biosynthetic is applicable when the wound bed is optimized. Dressings are also used after surgery to cover and protect skin grafts and skin graft donor sites. (See "Treatment of deep burns" and "Overview of surgical procedures used in the management of burn injuries".)

Update, 3/1

After 21 days in the hospital, 3 surgeries and skin graphs, my friend is home healing and doing well.  He still has a long way to go.

Here is what his doctor recommended for a first aid kit if you are a long way out, plus hydration and possibly wrapping lightly with sterile gauze.  Everything will have to come off when reaching a burn center/hospital, including the burnt skin.

This is just an FYI, I am no professional and this is 2nd hand information.

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Thanks op. Bc of this thread I updated some of my burn kits and added some larger sheet burn pads.