Also, his hands were not bandaged, which is what one would expect if he had burnt himself.
Not necessarily. If he gad received superficial burns and blistering without permanently damaged skin, his hands might not have been bandaged. That photograph is not very clear and we cannot see Thompson's
palms in it, the most likely part of the hands burnt in a steam related event. Without going into too much detail here (which can always be looked up for those interested) there
is such a thing as "Exposure Treatment" of certain types of burns.
I accept that a report in
New York Herald is NOT evidence that Fireman Thompson had burnt his hands while below. But
if he had scalded or very superficially burnt his palms, they would have hurt a lot for a
few hours thereafter. Hands, especially palms, are among the most pain sensitive parts of the body and
if they had been scalded while in the boiler room, Thompson would have found it very painful to grip anything and, like it claims on OASOG, would have made it almost impossible for him to push the plug in at the bottom of Collapsible A.
Superficial burns damage only the epidermis, the outer protective layer of the skin, thus exposing the sensory nerve endings in the next layer, dermis. These would be extremely pain sensitive and even a whiff of wind blowing across the area would be very painful. But after 3 or 4 days, the symptoms resolve dramatically as long as there is no further damage.