Firefighters have revealed some of the most unusual rescues they have been called to in Croydon, including a child stuck in a toilet seat and a person stuck in a swing.

In the last three years crews have been called to 32 incidents where people have got rings stuck on their fingers.

Other call outs include to a person with their arm trapped in a tap, a child with a finger trapped in a piano and a child with their head stuck in a massage chair.

The London Fire Brigade have released details of their calls to people getting stuck or trapped in things as part of its efforts to encourage people to use a bit of common sense before dialling 999.

Firefighters have blamed the 'Fifty Shades of Grey effect' for a rise in the number of people getting stuck in handcuffs and trapping their genitals in household items.

There have been 79 calls to incidents of people getting stuck in handcuffs and one call to a man who got his genitals stuck in a toaster.

Other incidents include:

  • Child with finger stuck in door
  • Child with leg stuck in shopping trolley
  • Hand trapped in bed
  • Child with finger trapped in bicycle wheel
  • Child with finger trapped in piano
  • Person stuck in loft
  • Child with head stuck in chair
  • Five year old with symbol stuck on finger
  • Child with head stuck in stool
  • Person with hand trapped in window
  • Woman with hand trapped in letter box

Third officer Dave Brown said: "Some of the incidents our firefighters are called out could be prevented with a little common sense.

"I don’t know whether it’s the Fifty Shades effect, but the number of incidents involving items like handcuffs seems to have gone up.

"I’m sure most people will be Fifty Shades of red by the time our crews arrive to free them.

"I’d like to remind everyone that 999 is an emergency number and should only be used as such.

"When firefighters are out attending to some of these avoidable incidents, someone else could be in real need of emergency assistance."

 

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