What I have always been taught is that you want to cool the burn down as soon as possible. Never use ice because it causes further tissue damage. What we do is start off with is apply cool saline soaked dressings to cool the burn down. Then we remove them once the burn is cooled down, dry the patient and then apply our dry sterile dressings. We also keep the patient warm as we can during this entire process. The lower these patients body temp gets the higher the mortality rate.