“We’ve seen burns from hot cooking oil catching fire, barbecue-related burns and scald burns from hot liquids," Associate Professor Cleland said. "These burns usually involve hands, arms and faces. Frequently, people who are trying to deal with burning oil, pick it up and try and take it outside but what usually happens is the oil spills on them or they fall and slip into a puddle of burning oil. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video "Sometimes, they open the back door and they get a big gust of air that makes the flames go up even further." Associate Professor Cleland said more than half the burns unit was filled with people who had sustained kitchen, domestic or home-cooking injuries. Several of those had also been in the intensive care unit.

Loading "People are ending up in intensive care beds with these injuries at a time when those beds are going to become very precious," she said. Across Australia intensive care units have yet to be overwhelmed with coronavirus patients – 13 people are being treated across Victoria for example – but authorities are expecting numbers to climb dramatically in May and June. The physical-distancing restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus have brought something of a lull to emergency rooms but unlike other trauma-related injuries such as those seen after car crashes burn injuries are on the rise. "Which is why we are trying to alert people to the fact these types of injuries can require admission to hospital, sometimes for weeks, and involve time in the intensive care unit, surgery and result in long-term scarring," Associate Professor Cleland.

"These are not trivial, minor injuries." Associate Professor Cleland said the most common causes of cooking burns included hot oil catching fire, people being burnt after throwing accelerant on barbecues, clothes catching fire while cooking, spilling large saucepans of boiling water and splash burns from boiling water, hot oil or fat. “I also need to remind people once again that accelerant and flames do not mix," she said. "We’ve seen a number of people badly burnt after pouring accelerant onto barbecues." Associate Professor Cleland said the hospital had treated a broad range of age groups for cooking injuries because people were spending more time in their homes than they otherwise would.

"There's more kids around at home too so there are a combination of factors that are feeding into this rise," she said. Associate Professor Cleland was particularly concerned about older people who were over-represented among the burns patients being admitted to hospital. "It's getting more difficult to support elderly people at home at the moment and when they are cooking they don't often have good eyesight," she said. "They generally have poorer health outcomes too, when they do suffer burns." Smothering the flames with an extinguisher or a fire blanket is the best practice, Associate Professor Cleland said.