Late last night (11 December) CFA responded to a call out of an unusual nature.
When crews arrived at the scene they found a 15-month-old girl with three fingers stuck in the bath drain.
The girls mum had tried various methods to get her finger unstuck including soap and detergent, but nothing had worked.
Leading firefighter Ryan Vague said although the little girl was distressed she showed amazing resilience and managed to keep relatively calm throughout the duration over the incident.
“Like most little kids she kept her teddy close by and her mum and aunty were great at chatting to her and keeping her distracted," he said.
Crews took about 1hr 40 mins to remove part of the old cast iron bath and although they managed to free two of the trapped fingers using a combination of various cutting gear and a lot of manual work, one finger remained stuck.
"The older design of the bath made it difficult to free her fingers," said Mr Vague.
"We had to disconnect the pipes and cut a section out the bath which was then transported to the hospital with the little girl.
“We used just about every tool in the toolbox including impact drivers and drills, a battery operated saw and high resolution cutting disks.
Some CFA members from Dandenong Fire Brigade accompanied the child with Ambulance Victoria (and part of the bath) to Dandenong hospital where they took another 2hrs 30 mins to cut the iron plug from around the child’s fingers.
Although it was a time consuming process, the girl’s fingers were released without injury and her parents were very happy.
Crews from Dandenong and Hallam attended the incident as well as Ambuland Victoria.
The last fireys returned back to the station at just after 2am this morning after a job very well done.
Author: CFA Media