THE LONDON PAPER (UK) 08 May 08 Firefighters in London free tortoise stuck in garden chair

A firefighter came to the rescue when a giant tortoise got trapped under a garden chair.

The tortoise's owner called the emergency services when she could not free her pet.

Matt Furber, 41, cut a leg off the chair with a hacksaw to allow the tortoise (not pictured) to continue its journey around the garden in Ramsden Heath, Essex, yesterday.

"I've been in the fire service for 14 years and without doubt it's the strangest call I have ever received," said Mr Furber.

"The tortoise was about the size of a dustbin lid. It had gone under one of those metal-framed garden chairs and got stuck. The chair had then sort of collapsed on it.

"I got the impression that it had been there for about an hour and the owner called because she was worried about hurting it."

He added: "I borrowed a hacksaw from the owner and cut one of the legs of the chair. The tortoise still didn't seem keen to move but eventually the owner coaxed it along.

"I'm not an expert on tortoises but it didn't seem distressed to me.

Mr Furber said he had travelled to the house alone and had not activated lights and sirens.

He added: "I did look in our guidelines to see if we had anything on trapped tortoises - but we didn't."
Firefighters in London free tortoise stuck in garden chair

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• GBR Press: Firefighters free tortoise - W von Papineäu, Sun May 11 21:00:47 2008