They've been known to rescue cats from trees and even children's hands from plug holes. Now Rotorua firefighters can add rescuing a man from a couch to the list of freak accidents they've attended.
A middle-aged man working in his garage got his foot stuck between the springsof a couch which he had walked over. While "more embarrassed than anything", the man was in some pain as the springs cut into his foot, a spokesman at the Rotorua Fire Service said yesterday.
The service was called to a property on Lasenby St in Fordlands at 9.20am yesterday.
The couch was stored in the garage in which the man was working, the spokesman told The Daily Post.
"He must have been trying to climb over it or something and his foot slipped between the cushions and into the springs.
"We had to cut him free with a pair of bolt cutters."
The spokesman said the man was more embarrassed than anything about his predicament but was taken to Rotorua Hospital for a check-up.
"He was certainly in some pain and had cut his foot, drawing blood," the Fire Service spokesman said.
"It really was a freak accident. We have had to cut children's hands free after [they've got] them stuck down a plug hole [before] - but that's what we are here for," he said.
