Summer fun warning: Water in your garden hose can be scalding, first responders say
Water sitting in garden hoses can get scalding hot in the summer — and it could burn children and animals that are sprayed with it, first responders warn.
The Craven County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina shared a Facebook post on Friday morning warning about the dangers of burning-hot hose water, citing a 2018 WSVN article that quoted firefighters who said the liquid in outdoor hoses can reach up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit in hot places in the United States.
Water that reaches those temperatures is hot enough to leave a child with third-degree burns in only five seconds, according to the Burn Foundation.
Last year, firefighters in Las Vegas tweeted a photo of a baby scalded in such an accident. Firefighters said kids and pets are especially susceptible to burns and advised people to “let the water flow a few minutes to cool before spraying on people or animals.”
Las Vegas firefighters have consistently warned of the dangers, with department spokesman Tim Szymanski saying he posts a photo of the burned child yearly so families remember the dangers, People reported last year.
“The hose sits in the sun, and when the water that’s left in the hose sits like that, it heats it up,” Szymanski said, according to People. “When people turn on the water they think the water will instantly be cold, but it isn’t, it actually could be extremely hot.”
The child in the picture is Nicholas Woodger, who was 9 months old when his mother Dominique Woodger of San Tan Valley, Arizona, accidentally sprayed him with scalding hot hose water while filling up a kiddie pool, KTVK reported in 2016. That left the child with second-degree burns on nearly a third of his body, the TV station reported.
“I thought he was crying because he was mad, because he hates when he gets sprayed in the face,” his mother said in 2016, according to ABC 15. “I didn’t think that it was burning him.”
“All of it was peeling,” Woodger said of her son’s skin, according to ABC 15. “He had blisters all over the right side.”
It was a 115-degree day and the hose water could have been 150 degrees, said Phoenix Fire Department Capt. Larry Subervi, who added that “at those temperatures, something as short as a 10 or 30-second exposure can result in a second-degree burn,” ABC 15 reported.
“Just be careful,” Woodger told the TV station. “Just touch it before you spray — before you let your kids near it.”
