Fire service is sizing up for rescues

A specialist rescue team to deal with obese people is being set up by the fire service in Bedfordshire after a rise in call-outs to help paramedics, writes Sally-Anne Stewart.

Firefighters are having to remove windows, doors or even walls to rescue obese people in life-threatening situations, leading to the decision to invest in a dedicated resource for the county.

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Area commander Simon Barker told the Gazette this week that the fire service was “recognising the risk and responding to it”, by putting in the specialist capability at Dunstable Fire Station.

The service will spend £18,000 on equipment to make sure such rescues can be carried out safely. The money will be spent on equipment for shoring up buildings, lifting equipment and items to be used in training.

Crews at Dunstable will receive extra training to deal with “bariatric” incidents, including using cradles and protecting patients’ dignity.

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A report that went before the fire authority earlier this year said the size of some patients, coupled with the building or vehicle they were in, meant their situation could be life-threatening.

Rescuing them meant sometimes creating space to get them out, such as removing windows, doors or even walls.

The fact that large numbers of people and equipment are involved means the situation itself can become dangerous for all involved.

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The report stated: “These aspects often require a large number of persons to assist in the rescue, together with mechanical aids for manual handling. This creates a very large load, particularly in a building, where the structural integrity of the building may be compromised by exceeding the

Chief fire officer Paul Fuller told the Gazette: “The problem is growing. We said, ‘If we’re going to do this, let’s do it properly’, so we’ve put the unit in place.

“People are often critical of people who are overweight but it’s not for us to judge, we just provide the service where it is needed, without fear or favour.”

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The most recent figures for the East of England showed 15 per cent of men and 16 per cent of women in the region were obese, defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above. A healthy BMI is between 18 and 25.

Over the past few years the East of England Ambulance Service has replaced nearly half of its fleet of ambulances with vehicles with bariatric capability.

The new ambulances have tail lifts capable of lifting 78 stone, as opposed to 55 stone on the older vehicles, and are wide enough for a bariatric stretcher.

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