Weight per minute: Six morbidly obese Britons a DAY have to be removed from their homes by firefighters

Six morbidly obese people are rescued by firefighters every day, startling data shows.

Shocking figures reveal the terrible reality of Britain’s obesity crisis that firefighters attended 2,194 ‘bariatric aid’ incidents last year.

This is five times higher than a decade ago, reflecting how the country’s waistline has swollen enormously.

Rescue teams have had to winch patients who were too fat to move from their flats. Sometimes walls, windows and stair railings need to be removed to get them out.

Tam Fry, chair of the National Obesity Forum, told MailOnline: ‘Tragically, someone will die in a fire because a crew is tied up in rescuing someone else.

‘It is an inescapable fact that the fire service will have to be relied on for this assistance for many years to come as the NHS is not in a position to provide this assistance.’

He added: ‘Even when the government finally decides to tackle obesity, thousands of others will still be torn from their homes on life-saving missions.’

Ambulance teams typically call for firefighters when patients in need of assistance are trapped in their crowd.

This usually concerns emergency or health-related situations.

Any instance where firefighters assist due to a patient’s weight is counted in the data, regardless of how they do so.

In October 2020, Jason Holton, Britain’s fattest man at the time, had to be lifted from his third-floor flat by crane during a seven-hour operation involving 30 firefighters.

The 47th man, from Camberley, Surrey, lived on doner meat, chips and chicken feed, washed down with 1.5 liters of orange juice and five cans of Diet Coke.

Homebound Mr. Holton died in May at the age of 33.

Bariatric care figures collected by the Home Office show that the number of calls in 2022/2023 was at a record high (2,342).

Despite the slight decline in 2023/24, it was still the second worst year on record.

Only 429 incidents were registered in 2012/2013.

A spokesperson for the National Fire Chiefs Council said: ‘There has been a long-standing obligation for fire and rescue services to work with other emergency services, such as the police and ambulance services, to provide public support where we can be of assistance, including the rescue of vulnerable people.

‘The need for fire and rescue services to be supported across a range of rescue incidents is increasing, and helping obese victims is just one part of that, and it is right that we help vulnerable people.

‘Our firefighters are well trained, well equipped and fully committed to working professionally and collaborating with blue light partners, as part of our statutory role.’

Firefighters spent in total, more than 20,000 hours were spent rescuing severely obese people – with some individual incidents lasting up to four hours.

Britain’s fattest man, James Holton, had to be lifted from his third-floor flat by crane and 30 firefighters in a seven-hour operation in October 2020

An analysis by MailOnline shows that the efforts cost around £330,000 in wages, with an average hourly wage of around £16.50.

This estimate only reflects wages paid to firefighters, excluding additional costs such as transportation.

In one incident in Durham, it took more than thirty firefighters and more than ten fire engines to free a morbidly obese person.

Across England, it took more than an hour to handle 888 ‘bariatric assists’ in 2023/2024 and 544 required skills from at least ten firefighters.

More than a quarter of adults (26.2 percent) in England are obese – the highest proportion ever recorded, according to the latest government figures.

Just under two-thirds of all adults in England are overweight or obese, a figure that is also the highest ever.

According to the World Obesity Forum, this figure will rise to eight in ten by 2060.