More Fire Services Being Asked To Help Lift And Move Obese People
Lifting morbidly obese casualties when they need medical attention is increasingly becoming the job of our region's firefighters.
Lifting morbidly obese casualties when they need medical attention is increasingly becoming the job of our region's firefighters.
A TFM investigation found that Durham Fire and Rescue Service received 123 calls relating to obese or bariatric casualties in the past 5 years.
The year with the highest number of call outs was 2011, when 32 people needed the assistance of the fire service within 12 months.
So far this year, 15 people needed to call the fire brigade for assistance moving someone who is morbidly overweight:
2010
20
2011
2012
32
2013
22
2014
25
2015 (1st January – 20th August)
15
Total
123
The fire service say the most common reasons to attend are when severely obese people fall and are unable to get themselves back up, or when ambulance crews require assistance lifting a patient.
It's thought that more morbidly obese people are choosing to stay at home when they become bedbound, whilst in the past, they would have been hospitalised.
Staff at Durham Fire and Rescue now receive specialist training to handle these types of call outs.
They train using a 20 stone dummy, and have access to extra-strong heavy lifting equipment.
Steve Wharton, Operations Manager, said: "It's certainly more common that it used to be, there are more people becoming larger.
"If someone who's in a house fire happens to be largely overweight, we need to have the resources and slightly different techniques and processes in place.
"We train in realistic environment with someone of that equivalent size."