The coffee scalding.

Debby seems to be masochistic victim. Someone that drinks and complains in a passive aggressive way might also sit after being scalded.

"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne

Oh, I do remember "back in the day". I still remember getting a burn on my finger as a child, and my mother putting butter on it. It was a common old wives theory then that cold water would drive the burn in.

Yep. Back in the early 60s I grabbed a hot coal at a barbeque having no idea what it was. The 1st thing the adults on hand did was to get some butter from the cooler and apply it to my fingers and the palm of my hand. This did nothing to help the pain and, in fact, caused me to howl like crazy - the only reason I remember the incident.
In later years I picked up a hot soldering iron by the wrong end thinking I had unplugged it hours earlier. Fortunately, the room I was in was adjacent to the bathroom so I was able to almost immediately get my fingers under ice cold water. I let the water run as the sink filled, never removing my fingers from the cold water - and this is key should you ever find yourself in this position:
Leave the area submerged for longer than you might think is reasonable. The reason why the butter idea is bad and why you need to keep the affected area under cold water for at least 5 - 10 minutes (if ya don't wanna suffer the pain that is) is, as gdave said, the flesh has been super heated and continues to burn after the source of the burn has been removed. Although my skin surface was burnt by the hot tip of the soldering iron, I didn't feel a thing after removing my hand from the sink. A few years later I did similar on a wood stove but failed to keep the area submerged long enough ... yeeouchhhhh.
Burns are kinda my hobby/specialty :-)

She got up and ran into the room where the others were gathered around a card table. She sat down while one of the men immediately grabbed some kinda towel and put it to her face. Whether it was wet/soaked with cold water or not wasn't obvious. She was then rushed out of the room, towel held to her face and taken for medical treatment.
The coffee/pot that Vince grabbed was on a heat coil and was boiling - the coffee was shown bubbling. Putting a towel on this type of burn isn't advised these days, thats for sure although, had it been me and a towel thoroughly soaked in ice water was immediately available, I would have applied it - at least until I could get to a source of more cold/ice water. But thats just my opinion.
IIRC, cloth/towels etc., even plain sterile dressings, aren't advisable because the fibers stick to the burn making it more likely to damage the affected area + burns are prone to infection - something a handy bar rag/towel is likely to contribute to. After the burning process has ended I think medicated goop applied to sterile dressing is used so as to make removing/changing the dressing easier - but I'm not sure anymore about this. Any health care pros out there ?