Contact burns caused 14 deaths in the summer of 2023, according to the center

PHOENIX — In Phoenix, the concrete jungle can burn its residents.

For Robert Woolley, 71, his contact burn sent him to the Diane and Bruce Halle Burn Center of Arizona for about five months.

The retired teacher and former Navy fighter pilot fell while standing in the backyard of his Phoenix home in July 2023. The heat from the pavement caused severe burns to his hands, arms and torso.

“I fell to the ground and hit my head on the ground,” he said during a news conference Tuesday at the burn center near Van Buren and 32nd streets.

Woolley was unable to stand. He tried to push himself up from the ground, but the burning pavement was so hot that he kept raising his hands reflexively.

“I looked at my hands and saw that the skin had come off my palms like onion skin. Underneath it looked like raw hamburger,” Woolley said.

He began to push his body with his forearm, which helped him progress, but soon he turned pitch black.

“I started trying to move on the hot rocks like a rattlesnake,” Woolley said. “That’s when I got burned on my leg, from my calf to my hip, pretty badly.”

He was so exhausted that he almost fell asleep.

“A voice in my head was telling me, ‘If you fall asleep, you won’t wake up. ’ That gave me a rush of adrenaline and I was able to get to my yard and turn around,” Woolley recalled.

The voice gave him the energy he needed to kick down the back door of his house, at which point his wife and son dragged him inside.

What happened to him could happen to any other senior in the Valley, he said.

Phoenix residents warned about contact burns ahead of July 4

Woolley was one of 136 patients admitted to the Diane and Bruce Halle Burn Center in Arizona with severe contact burns between July and August 2023.

Fourteen of those patients died from their injuries.

However, that number was a small fraction of the total heat-related deaths in 2023. Maricopa County said 645 people died due to heat last year. That is the highest number of heat-related deaths recorded to date, county officials said.

This summer is set to be a very hot season. Phoenix had its hottest June on record, according to the National Weather Service.

Additionally, Arizona Burn Center Director Kevin Foster said the center has admitted dozens of people for contact burns this June.

“We’ve had about 50 people admitted for their injuries,” Foster said. KTAR 92.3 FM News On Tuesday, the hospital reported that “four of the 50 people admitted died. They suffered heat stroke and burns so severe that they were not compatible with life.”

He said he wanted to sound the alarm about contact burns before the Fourth of July weekend because many Valley residents will be outdoors during the holiday.

In addition to the dozens of hospital admissions, dozens more have required treatment for their injuries, he added.

“There are probably over 100 people who have not been admitted and who simply suffered severe burns that required us to treat them as outpatients,” Foster said. “It seems like we’re at a record pace, which is a record we really don’t want to set.”