A man who lost his shoes was rescued after suffering full-thickness burns on his feet at Mesquite Flat sand dunes in Death Valley National Park on Saturday, July 20
According to a press release issued by the National Park Service, Death Valley park rangers believe the man (who was 42 and from Belgium) was taking a short walk on the sand dunes when he lost his flip flops, though due to “communication challenges” (which we think is a euphemism for “his English was poor and the park rangers’ Dutch, French or German wasn’t up to much either), the park rangers were not able to determine if his flip flops broke or were lost in sand.
The ground temperature would have been much hotter that air temperature, which was around 123°F / 50.5 °C.
The man’s family called for help and recruited other park visitors who carried the man to the parking lot.
