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This page was checked & updated on 2008-02-19

Salamanders Young Burn Survivors > Be Aware! Be Safe! > How Hot is "Hot"?

Hot things can burn you -- everyone knows that! but, just how hot is "Hot"?

Anything that is more than a few degrees hotter than your body can burn you. The hotter something is, the more dangerous it is.

Just how bad the burn will be depends on how tough your skin is (older people and very young children have more delicate skin) and on how long the heat is touching your skin, as well as on how hot the thing is.

(The temperatures shown on this page are in degrees Celsius; if you want to know what any of these temperatures are in degrees Fahrenheit, just put your mouse cursor over one and the Fahrenheit temperature will pop up beside your cursor.)

This table shows how hot some everyday things are.

A hot summer day - 30 degrees
Body temperature - 36.9 degrees
Hot bath water - 40.5 to 42.5 degrees
WATER AT 43 DEGREES CAN SCALD!
Central-heating pipes - 80 degrees
Hot coffee - 95 degrees
Boiling water - 100 degrees
A pressure cooker - 120 degrees
A candle flame - 205 degrees
A match flame - 205 degrees
A kitchen oven - 220 degrees
A laundry iron - 230 degrees
Hot cooking oil - 230 degrees TO TOP OF PAGE
Hot tail-pipes - 540 degrees
A coal fire - 600 degrees
Burning wood - 650 degrees
An electric fire - 900 degrees
A lighted cigarette - 930 degrees
A gas flame (fire or cooker) - 1000 degrees
Sparklers - 1000 degrees
Burning charcoal - 1100 degrees

Fireworks are really, really hot!

Even the 'safe' kinds of fireworks which you can hold, like Sparklers, can be ten times as hot as boiling water. Other fireworks can be twenty times as hot as boiling water! Look at this:-

Boiling water - 100 degrees
Sparklers - 1000 degrees
Fireworks - 2000 degrees

Be very, very careful even with 'safe' fireworks, and never, ever play with other fireworks! Fireworks are beautiful, fireworks are fun, but fireworks are not toys!

"BE AWARE! BE SAFE!" main page

To find out more about burn safety or fire safety, click on one of these small books:

Burn Safety TipsEmergency NumbersPlaying with Fire

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This family-friendly website is labelled with ICRA and SafeSurf rated.
Unless otherwise specified, the contents of this website are © 2000-2008 Salamanders Young Burn Survivors.
This is a personal website funded and maintained solely by the webmistress, who is not a medical professional. The medical information provided on this site is designed to supplement, not replace, professional medical advice and/or care.