SOUTHWEST FLORIDA - Thursday was one of the hottest days of the year in Southwest Florida. We found a hidden danger in today's soaring heat. Playground equipment... potentially burning children.

A hot day can't keep third grader Elijah from his favorite park. "There are lots of kids to play with. I like to make new friends," he said.

But he has learned the hard way, some equipment is too hot to touch. "On the metal, it feels hot," he said.

"There have been times when he tried to go on the swing and screamed because the sides are so hot and just now he screamed because the poles on the merry go round are sizzling hot I couldn't even touch them," said his Mom Clara.

WINK News took a thermometer to an area park to show just how hot the equipment is.

The plastic slide was 116 degrees.

The metal merry go round was 127 degrees.

But we found the equipment with the highest reading was the swing set at a dangerous 153 degrees."

"You actually start to have burns that occur at temperatures as low as 113 degrees," said Lee Memorial Emergency Room Doctor Douglas Lee.

Dr. Lee says make sure your children wear shoes for protection and parents should test the equipment first.

"As unpleasant as that is, it's even more unpleasant for a little child who doesn't have the foresight to test it themselves," he said.

There isn't national data on how often this happens but news stories across the country, show children with second-degree burns on their feet...and even a playground in Texas that caught on fire, it was so hot.

"It's definitely concerning," said Clara.

If a child is burned, medical experts say put a cool compress on the burn and get medical attention right away.