Firefighters in the UK are unimpressed after they had to rescue a man who got his head stuck in a microwave.
It took a crew from the West Midlands Fire Service one hour to pull apart the microwave and free the 22-year-old's head, Watch Commander Shaun Dakin said.
Firefighters spent an hour pulling apart a microwave to rescue a 22-year-old in the UK. Photo: West Midlands Fire Service
"He and a group of friends had mixed seven bags of Polyfilla which they then poured around his head, which was protected by a plastic bag inside the microwave," he said.
"The oven was being used as a mould, and wasn't plugged in. The mixture quickly set hard and, by the time we were called, they'd already been trying to free him for an hour and a half."
The Watch Commander said the situation could have been much worse - luckily the man's friends were able to feed him an air tube to help him breathe.
"As funny as this sounds, this young man could quite easily have suffocated or have been seriously injured," he said.
Watch Commander Dakin said five firefighters were involved in the difficult rescue operation on Wednesday afternoon.
"Taking the microwave apart was tricky, because a lot of it was welded. We video-called our technical rescue colleagues for advice and eventually managed to get him unstuck," he said.
"He was very relieved when we removed a large chunk of the Polyfilla with a screwdriver, allowing him to breathe more easily. But we had to be extremely careful with the screwdriver, working so closely to his head."
The young man's head had been 'cemented' in by seven bags of Pollyfilla. Photo: West Midlands Fire Service
While all the young men involved were "very apologetic", Watch Commander Dakin was unimpressed with the "youtube pranksters".
"This was clearly a call-out which might have prevented us from helping someone else in genuine, accidental need."
