Burns and blisters

What you need

• Clean cool water, as much as you can spare
• Non stick dressings and a roll of gauze
• Plastic cling wrap, which makes a good clean burn cover
• Moleskin, blister pads or strong tape
• A small pair of scissors
• Pain relief from your own kit

How: a burn

1. Stop the burning. Get the person away from the fire, smother flaming clothing, pull off anything hot that is not stuck to the skin.
2. Cool the burn under cool running or poured water for at least ten minutes. Twenty is better. Cool the burn, keep the rest of the person warm.
3. Take off rings, watches and tight clothing near the burn before it swells.
4. Cover it loosely with a non stick dressing or a layer of cling wrap laid on, not wrapped tight.
5. Leave blisters on a burn whole. They are the best dressing there is.
6. Give pain relief and fluids, and watch for shock: pale, cold, clammy, fast pulse.

How: a blister

1. Stop the moment you feel a hot spot. A hot spot fixed in two minutes saves a week.
2. Dry the skin and put tape or moleskin over the hot spot, smooth, with no wrinkles.
3. If a blister has formed and is small, leave it whole and pad around it with a ring of moleskin.
4. If it is big and will burst anyway, clean it, drain it at the edge with a flamed or wiped needle, leave the roof on, and cover it.
5. Change wet socks, fix the lacing, and deal with what caused it.

Do and don't

Watch for

Notes

Most camp burns come from a pot of boiling water knocked off a stove, not from the fire. Keep the stove low, stable and away from where people walk.

This card is not a first aid course. A real one, with hands on practice, is worth every hour.