how does fire cause permanent scars, and what happens at cells etc. level that we can’t see?
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Scars are made by the body’s “damage control” system. This process produces a different product than the “grow skin cells as the body grows” process. They are different processes that work in different ways, and so you can tell the difference in their products.
Any time your skin is damaged badly enough, your body panics and repairs it as quickly as possible to prevent infection, stop bleeding, etc. This rapid repair mechanism creates strong rugged scar tissue, rather than the slower, more careful process of replacing it with normal skin. A minor burn can heal without a scar, but a bad burn will trigger the scarring response.
Skin works from the inside out. The lowest layer is made up of cells that can split and create more skin cells. The older cells are pushed up to the top as new cells are made at the lowest levels. The top layer is mostly dead cells that flake away. It is a constant process of growing more and more skin.
Any damage to the skin that makes it down to that lowest level is going to kill the cells that duplicate and make more cells… at that point they don’t work there any more.
Your cells are mostly filled with water, which transfers heat pretty well… so fire will get down to those lower cells pretty fast (the ‘type of burn’ refers to how far down it got). So, it scars things up pretty good as a result.
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