Next few days crucial: doctor

The next few days will be a critical time for the surviving victims of the Morley explosion as the full extent of their injuries becomes apparent, according to a Perth plastic surgeon.

Dr Mark Duncan-Smith, who treated burns patients from the Ashmore Reef boat disaster in 2009 and the 2002 Bali bombing, said the extent of the burns and the age of patients were important factors in survival.

"It's generally accepted that if you take the percentage of the burns and the patient's age and put the figures together, if it's over 100, you're dealing with a potentially fatal injury and it's going to be a struggle for them to survive," he said.

"With 50 per cent-plus or even up to 80 per cent it's not just the skin that's burnt. You basically get involvement with the lungs, the kidneys and obviously the biggest risk with burns like that is infection.

"Any burn is survivable but basically once you hit 80 per cent, half of them will die, despite our best efforts. Having said that, with the last 80 per cent burn I had, everything went perfectly and he had a couple of operations and was out of hospital within two months."

But Dr Duncan-Smith said electrical burns could change the equation.

"What you see on the outside with a burn can just be the tip of the iceberg," he said. "High-voltage electrical burns are typically much worse than a normal flame burn, where it starts on the outside and what you see is what you get."

Recovery also depended on maintaining the patient's fluids.

"They will start to get leaky capillaries, so the fluid will start to go from their blood system into their actual tissues, and that's when they can get swelling and end up with multi-organ failure and death," he said.

"Their outcome is also dependent on infection, because the enemy in this whole picture is always infection."