Nine firefighters wanted to avoid wasting overweight individual as callout fee hits each 3 hours
A total over 15,000 “bariatric” incidents were responded to by firefighters in the past decade — up by five times compared to figures from the last decade as brigades reveal just how hard these callouts are
London’s Fire Brigade has had its resources stretched to the limit due to obesity-related callouts (stock)(Image: Martin Appleson via Getty Images)
Firefighters are now being summoned to assist obese people an average of over 3 hours every day, according to recent figures Around 1.9million UK adults are battling Class III obesity, previously termed morbid obesity.
Fresh data obtained by ZAVA shows that UK fire services responded to 15,849 bariatric incidents between 2020 and 2025, equating to one bariatric rescue every 3 hours and 20 minutes. ZAVA submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to all 49 fire and rescue services across the UK to identify the regions with the highest number of bariatric rescues, plus the average duration spent at each scene.
Earlier FOI disclosures demonstrated that during the five years spanning 2007/2008 and 2011/2012, fire crews were dispatched to more than 2,700 incidents to aid bariatric patients. ZAVA’s most recent analysis has uncovered that over a comparable timeframe between 2020 and 2025, UK fire and rescue services tackled 15,849 bariatric incidents, marking a nearly five-fold surge.
Tom, 30, a firefighter with London Fire Brigade, explained: “Jobs that would be straightforward with a casualty of a healthier weight become physically damaging and exhausting. Removing a severely overweight casualty from a fire would mean working harder, using more air, and staying longer in a dangerous environment; this significantly increases the risks of heat exhaustion, collapse, and fire spread.
“With a healthier-weight casualty, we could manage extrication far more easily. Instead, bariatric rescues are time-consuming, place severe strain on firefighters’ backs, and increase risk, particularly in fire situations where air use and exposure time are critical.
“These rescues are rarely just about lifting,” Tom concluded. “They often involve removing windows, doors, balconies, or working at height, all of which increase risk and duration.”
In total, UK fire and rescue services have dedicated 553,609 minutes to bariatric “special service calls”, according to the Mirror. Bariatric emergencies have resulted in £1,033,295 being spent from London Fire Brigade’s resources since 2020.
London Fire Brigade dealt with the most bariatric incidents between 2020 and 2025 (2,025). Across the capital, bariatric rescue incidents were predominantly clustered in Croydon (195), with Greenwich (151) and Bromley (140) following behind.
Since 2020, nearly four in five bariatric callouts have involved supporting ambulances (79%) with the transportation and extraction of overweight patients. South Wales Fire and Rescue Service recorded the second-largest number of incidents involving bariatric patients, logging 1,174 reports since 2020.
From 2020 to 2024, the service witnessed a 56% surge in incidents. The service has clocked approximately 51,972 minutes on scene helping bariatric patients, which equates to 866 hours or 36 days since 2020.
Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service experienced a staggering 146% rise in bariatric incidents between 2020 and 2024. Firefighter Tom revealed: “A single bariatric rescue required five fire engines, multiple Fire Rescue Units, USAR prime movers, a command unit, senior officers, police, four ambulances, a specialist bariatric ambulance, and a London Ambulance Service Incident Response Unit; this was an enormous mobilisation for a single patient.
“We were on scene for around ten hours. We had to remove a ground-floor balcony, take out three French doors, build a ramp capable of supporting his weight, and set up a line system to lower him down the verge to the road gently.
“It took nine firefighters just to lift him from the chair onto an upright stretcher. Normally, you’d take a limb each, but he was so heavy that extra hands were needed.
“One of my crew members injured his back during this job. These incidents routinely push firefighters beyond safe manual handling limits.
“The sheer number of resources tied up on this job (fire, ambulance, and police) reduced emergency cover across London and likely came at a huge cost to the taxpayer. It involved a 45-minute blue-light run, a ten-hour operation on scene, and a long drive back to base afterwards. That’s a lot of risk and resource for one patient.”
Research from ZAVA reveals that UK fire and rescue services dealt with 13% fewer bariatric incidents between 2022 and 2024, potentially connected to weight-loss injections becoming available in the UK during 2023. Dr Crystal Wyllie, a physician at ZAVA, stated: “Obesity is an epidemic across the world, but within the UK, we can see a natural impact that bariatric care has not only on the NHS, but also on other public services such as fire and rescue services.
“First responders have to deal with a tremendous amount of stress on a day-to-day basis, but adding difficult callouts for bariatric patients risks their health and safety when manual handling pushes the physical limits of responders.”
She added: “So tackling obesity is key here to reduce strain on our public services. This decrease in bariatric incidents is a light at the end of the tunnel, and with the millions of Brits choosing weight loss management techniques, including weight loss injections, we can expect to see a further decrease in these risky rescues in the years to come.”
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