Fire Fighters Issue 'Common Sense' Caution

BethPH
By BethPH Last edited 148 months ago
Fire Fighters Issue 'Common Sense' Caution


The many and varied ways in which people can get themselves into sticky (in some cases literally) situations are the subject of a reminder from the London Fire Brigade on cutting down call-outs by exercising our common sense.

Last year, firefighters were called out to 417 incidents to release people or their body parts after they had become trapped. A Brigade spokesperson said:

'You wouldn’t believe some of the incidents we’re called to deal with – people manage to get themselves trapped in some very weird and wonderful places but there is a serious side to this. These incidents are time consuming, costly and take up the precious time of our crews who are then unavailable to attend other, potentially life threatening, emergencies. We’d ask the public to take greater care to avoid getting themselves into these often ridiculous situations and to think carefully before dialling 999 and calling us out if there isn’t an emergency.'

On bonfire night this year, the Brigade also provided an insight into their world when they live tweeted their calls for the night. So, without further ado, here are some of the ridiculous situations Londoners have found themselves in:

  • A woman with her foot glued to the floor in Islington
  • A child with its head stuck in a tambourine in Southwark
  • A woman with a hedge strimmer stuck on her arm in Greenwich
  • Several people with their hands stuck in a letterboxes
  • Several people with their hands stuck in shredders
  • Several children with toilet seats and potties stuck on their heads or round their necks
  • The removal of rings from the fingers of 160 people
  • The removal of handcuffs from 36 people
  • The removal of ‘other’ objects from 74 people, 15 of whom were injured
  • Rescuing 14 people who had become impaled
  • Rescuing 133 people who had become trapped in or under machinery or other objects

Speculation on what the 'other objects' which required removal in the comments, please.

Last Updated 25 November 2011