Death Valley National Park Heat Melts Skin off European Tourist's Feet

A short walk on the sand dunes of the Death Valley National Park turned out to be a painful ordeal for a European Tourist as the extreme heat caused the skin to melt off his foot.

Knewz.com has learned that the tourist lost his flip-flops in the dunes, forcing him to walk barefoot on the scorching sand.

The 42-year-old Belgian tourist suffered this injury on Saturday, July 20, a day before the world experienced the hottest day in recorded history.

The year 2024 has already seen hundreds of cities across the United States experience heat waves like never before, with Texas , Las Vegas, and Phoenix reaching triple-digit temperatures this summer.

The cities of Del Rio and McAllen in Texas witnessed temperatures of 112 degrees and 103 degrees respectively, while the National Weather Service of Las Vegas wrote in a July 13 post on X that the city experienced record-breaking temperatures for seven days in a row.

“With a high temperature of 115°F this afternoon we not only extended our streak to 7 days, but we also broke the daily record high. This makes today the 7th day IN A ROW that we have broken or tied daily high temps!” the post read.

Notably, the Death Valley National Park is one of the hottest places in the world, and according to Park authorities, temperatures reached 123 degrees Fahrenheit on the day of the incident.

It has been reported that the tourist , whose name has not been disclosed, was taking a short walk on the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park when he either broke or lost his flip-flops.

As a result, he was forced to walk barefoot on the extremely hot sand, causing third-degree burns on his feet.

“The skin was melted off his foot,” Death Valley National Park Service Ranger Gia Ponce was quoted as saying.

While the National Park was already experiencing triple-digit temperatures, Park Service Ranger Ponce mentioned that the ground can get much hotter, “sometimes up into the 200 range.”

“People think it’s going to be like the beach where you can get out there with flip-flops or sandals, but because of the extreme temperatures, those dunes heat up just as much as the pavement does,” she added.

While the injured man’s family wanted Park authorities to fly him out using a helicopter and rush him to a hospital – given the severity of his injuries and the amount of pain he was experiencing – the option proved implausible.

The air above the hottest regions of the National Park is thinned due to the extreme heat, making it impossible for helicopters to generate enough rotor lift to fly into the area.

The family of the tourist enlisted the help of other park visitors, who carried him to the parking lot, according to a press release by the National Park authorities.

Park Rangers transported him in an ambulance to a landing zone at a higher elevation, and relatively cooler temperature, from where he was picked up by Mercy Air and transported to University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

In the context of this latest incident, the Dead Valley National Park authorities advised summer visitors to “stay within a 10 minute walk of an air conditioned vehicle, not hike after 10 am, drink plenty of water, eat salty snacks, and wear a hat and sunscreen.”

Ponce mentioned that Rangers who work in the Park regularly take extreme caution with the heat and usually wear gloves to touch exposed surfaces. “We gingerly touch surfaces if we’re outside, like doorknobs,” she was quoted as saying.