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.

  • @Grass
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    -201 month ago

    why do people keep going here. does nobody watch the local news there or is it all biden gone here’s herris, trunp maga pooble dooble and nothing actually local?

    • @[email protected]
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      231 month ago

      The average person has become accustomed to no threats to their life. You know how they tell you not to feed wild animals, because they become accustomed to it and can’t fend for themselves? It’s like that.

      • newtraditionalists
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        151 month ago

        A more cynical way I’ve seen this put: we’ve made it too easy for stupid people to survive.

      • FuglyDuck
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        51 month ago

        Technically, the reason they tell you not to feed wild animals is because they’re likely to maul you when you run out of food.