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Burning Man provides a higher level of on-site care by contracting with the Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority, Reno’s 911 services provider.

With 80 nurses, EMTs, and physicians staffing the medical tent and trailer, as well as ambulance and helicopter transport on standby, “REMSA creates an entire EMS system in the middle of the desert,” said Alan Dobrowolski, RN, the authority’s clinical director.

The most common complaints include soft-tissue injuries — often from banging toes or shins against exposed rebar, dehydration, eye problems, cracked skin, and blisters, as well as strains and sprains.

Last year, in addition to the 2,011 patient visits to REMSA’s site, there were several serious injuries — including five people critically injured in two plane crashes — and a woman who died in a car-related accident.

Although REMSA passes transport and hospital costs on to the patients, Burning Man participants receive free treatment on-site as part of the $200 ticket price.

“One of our jokes is that we save a lot of time because people come in skimpily dressed,” Dobrowolski said. “So you don’t have to ask them to get undressed.”

REMSA staffers are paid minimum wage when they are on duty, as well as free entry to the event. Dobrowolski, who first worked at Burning Man in 1997, said he looks forward to the event every year.

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