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31 March 2023
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London Fire Brigade reveals strangest 999 calls, from trapped cats to people stuck in loos
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As April Fool's Day approaches, London fire fighters urge the public to use a "little bit of common sense" to help avoid unnecessary calls. A cat trapped in a gutter after jumping out of a skylight and a child with a toilet seat stuck on their head are among some of the strangest 999 calls made to the London Fire Brigade in the last three years.
Since 2016, the Brigade has been called 659 times to people trapped in the loo, while 56 incidents have involved pets being stuck in unusual places.
As well as unusual calls, fire fighters have also received more than 30 000 malicious call-outs in the past five years, wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayer cash.
Deputy Commissioner Tom George said in a statement in 2019, "No matter how strange a call may seem, we will always attend if there is a genuine emergency but you should always think carefully about how to use our resources. A number of the more unusual calls we attend involve children or animals so we would always urge Londoners to keep an eye on their youngsters or pets to ensure they aren't getting themselves into sticky situations which could be avoided."
Some of the incidents included:
Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed fire fighters received 24 921 calls worthy of challenging between 2014 and 2018, with crews sent out to 6 636 of these. However in 2018 the number of such calls had dropped to 5 410, with 4 201 calls challenged.
Share your strange/unusual April Fool’s Day call out with us!
Quote of the week
“If every fool wore a crown, we should all be kings.” ~ Welsh Proverb
Fire and Rescue International is your magazine.
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Download magazine PDFs: https://www.frimedia.org/fri-archives.html
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Lee Raath-Brownie
Managing director
Cell: 082 371 0190
Contact us
Tel: 011 452 3135 or Email: [email protected]
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Since 2016, the Brigade has been called 659 times to people trapped in the loo, while 56 incidents have involved pets being stuck in unusual places.
As well as unusual calls, fire fighters have also received more than 30 000 malicious call-outs in the past five years, wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayer cash.
Deputy Commissioner Tom George said in a statement in 2019, "No matter how strange a call may seem, we will always attend if there is a genuine emergency but you should always think carefully about how to use our resources. A number of the more unusual calls we attend involve children or animals so we would always urge Londoners to keep an eye on their youngsters or pets to ensure they aren't getting themselves into sticky situations which could be avoided."
Some of the incidents included:
- A woman stuck in a tree while trying to retrieve a cat in Hillingdon
- A pet snake trapped in a ring in Hounslow
- A child with their head stuck in a potty in Westminster
- A bus driver locked in a toilet at a bus stand in Lambeth
- A pigeon stuck in a chimney in Richmond
- A hamster stuck between a toilet and a wall in Tower Hamlets
Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed fire fighters received 24 921 calls worthy of challenging between 2014 and 2018, with crews sent out to 6 636 of these. However in 2018 the number of such calls had dropped to 5 410, with 4 201 calls challenged.
Share your strange/unusual April Fool’s Day call out with us!
Quote of the week
“If every fool wore a crown, we should all be kings.” ~ Welsh Proverb
Fire and Rescue International is your magazine.
Read it, use it and share it!
Download magazine PDFs: https://www.frimedia.org/fri-archives.html
Read the magazines online: https://issuu.com/fireandrescueinternational
Enjoy the read!
Lee Raath-Brownie
Managing director
Cell: 082 371 0190
Contact us
Tel: 011 452 3135 or Email: [email protected]
Websites
www.fireandrescue.co
www.frimedia.org
www.facebook.com/FireandRescueInternational
www.twitter.com/FRI_magazine
http://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-raath-brownie-16668065/