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FIRE crews handled more than 40 calls a week last year from obese people trapped in their homes, shock figures show.
They were called out a record 2,332 times in the 12 months to April.
The number has jumped by seven per cent in a year and is more than double that of five years ago.
Cases include 25 firefighters freeing a 50 stone heart attack victim by removing a flat’s wall in a 17-hour operation in Acton, West London.
Paramedics and police often call out fire crews when obese people needing medical help are trapped.
They are now training with 40st dummies bulked out with stones and ball bearings, and go equipped with specialist lifting and carrying gear.
Experts fear more folk are getting stuck as they rely on home deliveries while being in a wheelchair or bed-bound.
Figures from England’s fire crews show the all-time high of 2,332 “bariatric rescues” in England in 2022-2023 was up from 2,188 in 2021-2022.
Back in 2017-18 there were 1,040. In 2012, Georgia Davis, 22, had to be hoisted out of her home in Aberdare, South Wales, with a crane after her weight shot up to 60st.
Tam Fry, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said: “It’s tragic to see these figures rise year-on-year.
“Expect to read of these call-outs for many years to come even though new appetite-suppressant drugs for the very obese should eventually make them less necessary.”
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