Many people accidentally subject themselves to heat-related injuries through common carelessness. Across the greater Boston area, people grab hot cooking pots, splash themselves with hot water and bump into heated surfaces and cause minor burn injuries every day. When people encounter fires, however, the potential for more serious burns can result.

A Boston-area firefighter suffered a burn injury while battling a residential blaze in Mattapan. Two other firefighters suffered non-burn-related injuries while battling the fire that displaced six people. While the firefighter’s burn injury is not life-threatening, serious burns can cause permanent, life-altering damage to their victims.

Burns are rated by degree, with first-degree burns being the least serious, second and third-degree burns being moderately serious, and fourth-degree burns being the most serious of all. A person can be burned from more than just a traditional heat source – friction, extreme cold, electricity, and chemicals can all cause serious burn injuries requiring different treatment plans and lengths of recovery.

While some burns are self-inflicted accidents, innocent people can suffer injuries when other people’s negligent or reckless actions create dangerous situations. While the cause of the discussed residential fire is unknown, incidents of arson, careless brush fires and even tossing a lit cigarette out of a car window can ignite damaging fires that can spread to victims’ homes.

Unlike broken bones or minor bumps and bruises that a person can suffer from common accidents and that heal without a trace of the original problem, burn injuries regularly leave behind visible scars long after the wounds have healed. Individuals who have suffered burn injuries as a result of other people’s actions have rights regarding the recoupment of costs associated with their recoveries.

Source: Boston.com, “Early morning fire in Mattapan displaces six residents and injures three firefighters; Brockton blaze displaces two,” Chris Stuck-Girard, April 27, 2013