DOCTORS have issued a warning for people to be careful with disposable barbecue trays, because of the number of burns they are treating.
Despite the heatwave being over for now, warm weather is expected to continue, leading many people to buy the disposable trays to enjoy some hot food in the sun.
Sarah Hemington-Gorse, a burns and plastic surgery consultant at the Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery, said surfaces where the disposable barbecues had been resting on remained extremely hot afterwards, causing nasty burns.
Unlike fixed or wheeled barbecues, which were off the ground, the small tray-style disposable ones are often placed directly on the beach or on a patio.
She said: "What generally happens is the portable barbecue is used for cooking and then disposed of to prevent injury.
"But people fail to realise that the surface it has been on retains the heat and stays hot for a long time afterwards. "This is particularly a problem with slate patio slabs and sand.
"They forget that where the barbecue has been, once it has been moved, remains very hot.
"Then people walk, kneel or lean on the surface and sustain a burn. These burns vary in depth from partial thickness which will heal with dressings, to deeper injuries."
Ms Hemington-Gorse said hands usually healed because the contact was brief, but feet tended to take longer to settle, as they were more prone to infection and potentially the burn deepens if infection occurs.
She added: "The other issue is that whereas an adult realises that the heat is burning and withdraws from it, children tend to freeze initially and therefore stay in contact with the heat source for longer."
Sarah also warned about flash burns from people lighting garden rubbish fires or barbecues with petrol.
"They tend to get flash burns to their faces and sometimes burns to the legs and hands, and we saw a couple of those last weekend too."
