Shocking figures have revealed firefighters are called out to help move more than 40 obese people each week.
Some rescues even took up more than half of the firefighters' shifts.
Fire crews were required to move overweight people in their homes so frequently that training now involves 250kg dummies and specialist equipment for lifting.
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Figures outlined by The Sun indicate that fire crews were called 2,280 times in England to assist with bariatric rescues.
That is a rise of five per cent from 2023.
It is also four times higher than the 489 people who required help a decade ago.
In 2024, 289 overweight people were in need of help for more than two hours, however, 53 rescues took at least four hours.
Stock image of firefighters
|RAWPEXEL
Experts indicated that people could not leave their homes when an emergency struck.
Fire crews even had to remove doors on some occasions.
One of the longest rescues took 17 hours in Acton when crews smashed a wall to rescue a 315kg heart attack victim in 2023.
One man in 2020 required a crane to remove him from his third-storey window in Surrey.
Fire crews were responding to more rescues of obese people than pets or children stuck in lifts
|GETTY
The number of rescues for obese people in 2024 was higher than the callouts to save pets from heights and even calls for children stuck in lifts.
The data comes after a survey found ambulance services spent almost £30million on cars and equipment to transport obese people in the last five years.
National Obesity Forum Chair Tam Fry said: "Despite the successes of weight loss drugs, bariatric rescues will be needed for some time to come".
The data comes in the midst of a row which saw a council receive backlash after being accused of levelling a "fat tax" when charging higher fees for wider burial plots.
Those burying loved ones at Danescourt Cemetery in Wolverhampton will have to fork out £2,700, meaning they are facing a 20 per cent increase on the cost of a standard five-foot grave if they wish to buy a six-foot-wide plot.
The decision was made by Wolverhampton Councillors in May, when dedicating a new section of the cemetery for bigger coffins.
A Wolverhampton Council spokesman said the additional charge was implemented after the demand for larger graves rose.
In 2021, the city had a 33.3 per cent obesity rate - which is the most recent data.
However, the national average in the same year was 25.9 per cent.
Fourth-generation Funeral Director at Hickton Family Funeral Directors Ross Hickton told The Telegraph: "Essentially it's a fat tax".
“Families are already going through enough when they’re bereaved," he said.
"People have paid into the system their whole lives and paid local council tax, and now they’re being slapped with another tax at the point of death just due to their size.”