Firefighter called into action as son gets stuck in toilet seat

A firefighter was forced to put his professional skills into action at home when his son got his head stuck in a toilet seat.

The two-year-old was playing with the seat at home in Bristol when the accident occurred.

Dad Ross Pullen told the Press Association: “[My wife] turned around and he said ‘mummy, I’ve got a new hat’ and I think it was at that point we realised it wasn’t coming off.

“My wife called me upstairs, I looked in and thought ‘oh no, only you could do that’.”

Luckily for the boy, his dad has plenty of experience in extracting people who have got themselves stuck in unusual situations.

Pullen is a watch manager at Temple Fire Station, so is trained in exactly what to do in such situations.

Using protection in the form of a tea towel, some goggles and a plastic container lid to ensure his son was safe, Pullen set about cutting him free.

He said: “We basically brought him back downstairs, calmed him down, sat him on his potty, which is quite ironic, watched Finding Nemo for a bit, to calm him down and then…we cut it off, and he was happy.”

Pullen sent the photos of the incident to the station, who shared them on Twitter “to highlight the dangers of the toilet seats and making sure that children aren’t left alone using them and making sure people know what to do in an emergency”.

While no fire crew was needed on this occasion, Pullen was clear that any parents who find themselves in a similar situation shouldn’t be shy about calling an expert.

He said: “I’ve cut several off in my career, cut children out of swings, heads in railings, got cats out of trees, people out of trees… it’s just something that you don’t see every day.”