It took five ‘seriously unimpressed’ officers an hour to release 22-year-old who ‘could quite easily have suffocated’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Five firefighters spent an hour working to release a YouTube prankster who had cemented his head inside a microwave oven.

The 22-year-old and a group of friends mixed seven bags of Polyfilla before pouring it around his head, which was protected by a plastic bag inside the appliance.

Their intention was to use the microwave as a mould. By the time emergency services were called at 1.49pm on Wednesday to the garage of a house in Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, the group had already been trying to free him for 90 minutes.

The friends had managed to help the man breathe through an air tube.

Watch Commander Shaun Dakin, the officer in charge of the West Midlands fire service crew who responded, said: “As funny as this sounds, this young man could quite easily have suffocated or have been seriously injured. 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 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.

“It took us nearly an hour to free him. All of the group involved were very apologetic, but this was clearly a call-out which might have prevented us from helping someone else in genuine, accidental need.”