Fire crew needed to get injured "giant" out of his Wigan home

The 33-year-old had suffered a spinal injury and complained to paramedics that he couldn’t feel his lower legs.

But because of tight angles in the house on Heber Street, Ince, and the casualty’s height, it was impossible to get a stretcher inside.

At 1.10am today (Wednesday November 8) crew from Hindley fire station was called and they deployed what is called a “long board” onto which the patient was carefully manoeuvred in the living room, taken through the kitchen, out of the back door and down an alleyway.

Once out at the front of the house he could be transferred onto a wheeled stretcher and taken to Wigan Infirmary with his worried partner by ambulance. The man’s condition since is not known.

Hindley watch manager Philip Dearden said: “He said he was 6ft 8ins but I think he was even bigger than that. I am 6ft 2ins and can fit comfortably on a long board but this lad’s legs were hanging off the end.

"His size, the dimensions of the house and the fact that he might have sustained a spinal injury made things quite difficult. He had to be kept in ‘neutral alignment’ because of the potential injury and because of the tight angles we couldn’t therefore take him out through the front door.

"Instead we went through the back of the house, down an alley and round the side.

"We were there for about an hour before getting him onto the stretcher.”