Late on Friday night, reports started to come in of a person set on fire in the toilets of the Leek and Winkle pub in Hackney. At first the call takers considered that it might be a hoax or a false alarm, since (thank god) this kind of thing isn’t exactly commonplace, but this theory was quickly disproved by the fact that we took about ten calls on it, all giving the same details. Very odd, we thought. If you were going to murder someone in such a horrid and dramatic way, surely you would drag them to a field in the middle of nowhere before dowsing them in petrol and igniting them? Surely doing it in a public toilet is the easiest way to get caught?
When a call like this comes in, as well as sending an ambulance, the first thing the dispatch desk does is to get on to the police and fire brigade. Most of the time they will already know because a member of the public will have called them (personally, if I saw a man on fire, my first thought would be “fire engine!” and not “ambulance!”) but we call them anyway, to be sure they are aware and so we can co-ordinate our response with theirs.
The fire brigade were on their way, but they didn’t have any more information than us. The police, however, were able to shed a little light on the matter. The following message appeared on screens via the electronic link:
“One of our patrol cars passed a stag party o/s the Leek and Winkle 30 mins ago. One male was dressed as a mummy, wrapped in toilet paper. Believe this may be related.”
As the crew on scene later reported, the police were right. The stag’s friends had thought it was hilarious to dress him as a mummy and send him stumbling around outside the pub with toilet paper over his eyes. One friend thought it would be even funnier to hold a cigarette lighter to the end of the toilet paper. He had no idea how flammable the toilet paper was. Unable to stop the flames, the friends had bundled him into the toilet and tried to put them out with water. By now the man was a seething mass of flames and had caught the attention of the other pub goers, which was when we were called.
By the time our ambulance and HEMS team reached the patient, the fire was out, but he had 40% burns and was blue lighted into hospital in a critical condition.
I think it’s safe to say that the wedding is off.
May 17th, 2006 at 10:01 am
I must say you have done an admirable job in convincing me never to return to the UK. Keep up the good writing.
May 17th, 2006 at 10:49 am
Oh dear, that wasn’t *quite* the effect I was aiming for, but glad you’re enjoying the blog!
May 17th, 2006 at 11:04 am
Aaargh! MORONS!!!
May 17th, 2006 at 11:06 am
It’s not standard procedure to wrap you in toilet paper at passport control y’know Blogreader. You have to have some seriously stupid friends for that to happen.
May 17th, 2006 at 11:09 am
Don’t worry. Coppersblog and Random Reality are also to be *congratulated* in confirming the need for me not to hurry back any time soon.
May 17th, 2006 at 11:47 am
If you love me, you’ll repost that on mock_the_stupid (LJ).
May 17th, 2006 at 11:56 am
That’s shocking, I can’t believe someone would be so stupid. Was it actually the guy getting married who now has 40% burns?
May 17th, 2006 at 11:56 am
Something similar happened a few weeks ago in my neck of the woods (SE London). Saw it in the local free rag. Man dressed as a mummy for his birthday party and some woman decided (for whatever reason) to set light to him.
There are some odd people out there!
May 17th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Anonymous - I have no idea who you are, so I’m not sure if I love you or not. You’re welcome to repost it yourself but I’m not a member of mock_the_stupid.
Helen - I believe so, although obviously finding out that information wasn’t the first priority of the emergency services that attended
May 17th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
O.M.G. In my job I know there are some seriously stupid people out there (often think about blogging about this fact but then decide it would cause far too much offence) but this is pretty outrageous by any standard.
May 17th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Reminds of a tale from uni, involving a fancy dress costume made from brightly coloured tissue paper and cigarettes.
Thankfully in that case the end result was a lot better.
May 17th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
Bahahah what a fool!
May 17th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
I feel really sorry for the burnt bloke. So what if he wore flammable clothing? He probably didnt expect his mates to set fire to him! Now he’s going to be disfigured for the rest of his life, just for doing something that a *lot* of people do every halloween.
People used to wear shellsuits and they’re flammable too. Would he be a fool if he wore a shellsuit to an 80s night and someone set fire to him?
May 17th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
i bet the lads are hiding they private parts from his wife to be.
I find a stag and hen paintball party if much more fun. do about 3 to 4 weeks before the wedding to let the brusing disappear. much more fun, and you get to shoot the wife to be in the ass!!
May 17th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Apparently something very similar to that happened at the University of Bath a few years ago, with someone dressed as a mummy for halloween, and then set on fire by accident with a cigarette lighter. More info here.
May 17th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
I remember reading about something similar happening at the Christmas Party of a top London Investment Bank a few years ago. Apparently it was fancy dress and someone came in a hawaiian skirt. His ‘friends’ thought it would be hilarious to set fire to his skirt and about an hour later he was in A&E with serious burns. Alcohol + Idiots = Disaster.
May 17th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
Alcohol + Idiots = Disaster.
Yes, indeed.
And you don’t even absolutely need the alcohol. I think the wife-to-be needs to rethink her planned dive into the inch-deep end of the gene pool.
May 17th, 2006 at 6:26 pm
How can u not realise bog paper is flamable?!
May 17th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
We’ve just been having a great read of your blog here at ‘ambulance central’ (We’re not supposed to be on the internet but as you must know when its quiet, something must break the monotony) I just wanted to write to say keep up the good work, you’ve many new supporters/readers from our office.
Anon in London
May 18th, 2006 at 4:41 am
He had no idea how flammable the toilet paper was.
So this was Stag Night of the Dimwits then.
May 18th, 2006 at 5:48 am
Had these people never heard of “Stop Drop Roll”?
May 18th, 2006 at 8:01 am
[...] Late on Friday night, reports started to come in of a person set on fire in the toilets of the Leek and Winkle pub in Hackney. At first the call takers considered that it might be a hoax or a false alarm, since (thank god) this kind of thing isn’t exactly commonplace, but this theory was quickly disproved by the fact that we took about ten calls on it, all giving the same details. Very odd, we thought. Nee Naw [...]
May 18th, 2006 at 8:30 am
Errm LOL,
makes what we done to a mate look like childish stuff.
we gaffa taped one bloke to a flag pole.
Here is the lesson for today drunken children
i think its safe to say that nobody should ever dress up as a mummy.
and in response to this >Had these people never heard of “Stop Drop Roll”?
probably wouldent had worked all that well in this case, as toilet paper has a bad habit of burning quicker if you fan it or even remotley move.
May 18th, 2006 at 10:03 am
“[Stop Drop Roll] probably wouldent had worked all that well in this case, as toilet paper has a bad habit of burning quicker if you fan it or even remotley move.”
But at least the flames aren’t pointing at your face/airway.
May 18th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
“Stop, Drop, Roll” doesn’t always occur to SOBER people…. and these feloows were apparently far, far from sober! I have no idea where “Anon” lives… but the UK is hardly the only repository of crazy people and odd behaviour… come to where I live and work, just outside NY City- I’ll match you crazy-for-crazy! Personally, I love the UK- having family and friends there and having visited a number of times and plan to return….. (dare I say it, given the other post today) … “as soon as possible”!
May 22nd, 2006 at 5:26 am
The person who lit him up should be charged. Wrapping a person in bogroll is hardly a crime, but setting light to it must surely be attempted manslaughter or however they phrase “acts stupid enough to be potentially fatal”.
May 27th, 2006 at 2:29 am
An extract from the nz herald of a simmlar event that happened in 2000. The “joker” got 2 years and served 10 months. The partygoer died and I even think the woman he was in the toilet with got badly burnt.
***Burned partygoer fights for life
A Merrill Lynch worker whose Hawaiian fancy dress costume caught fire at his firm’s Christmas party is fighting for his life in Middlemore Hospital. Doctors at the hospital’s burns unit last night listed the 24-year-old’s condition as critical. The man’s synthetic grass skirt caught fire after his co-worker held a lighter to it as a joke.
Published: Monday 18, December 2000 5:00.00 AM****
Go to the following link for more
link
May 29th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
“Stop! Drop Roll.” Makes more sense like that.
June 12th, 2006 at 4:30 pm
Sounds like a prime candidate for the Darwin Awards!!
June 26th, 2006 at 11:44 am
Well I’m not sure how I got a hit for this when searching for UK first-in-man disaster but now I’m here:
WHY TOILET PAPER? When I think Mummy, I think BANDAGES people! Bandages!
Also gross stupidity should be a crime punishable by death. But I think we’d run out of bullets long before all offenders got their dues…..
July 11th, 2006 at 9:15 am
I get married in a week…if my fiance’s friends did this to him, I would castrate them with a teaspoon…
(Luckily his father is going on his stag week -who has stag nights anymore? - so I know they’ll be no seriously crazy antics)
- Bride on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown
July 17th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
I’ve heard of some silly stags but this one really takes the biscuit - cancel the wedding - NOW!
July 4th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
It worries me people like this are allowed to breed!