Maisie, two, rescued by firefighters after getting trapped in chair
They used traditional soap and butter to try to free her but in the end it was brute force that rescued a young girl who trapped her leg in a chair at her grandmother's house in the Black Country.
Lynne Clouds tried in vain for 30 minutes to free her two-year-old granddaughter Maisie Phillips when she became stuck after falling from the chair.
But after becoming increasingly exasperated and running out of ideas to help the youngster, she dialled 999 to call in firefighters to help.
The crew from Bilston fire station arrived within minutes, helping to calm down the family before pulling the bars apart to free her leg yesterday.
"They were lovely and we can't thank them enough," said Lynne, aged 51, of Millard Road.
Her daughter Jeanette Clouds, 22, had left Maisie and her four-year-old son Owen Phillips at Lynne's house while she had to go out. Maisie had climbed onto a chair on the landing to look out through a window. She lost her balance and her leg slipped between the metal bars on the back support.
After minutes of trying to pull her out, Lynne said she become more frantic. They tried soap and butter around her leg to try and make it easier.
They even called for her granddad John Clouds to fetch a saw to saw through the tough metal.
With the youngster becoming increasingly upset they decided to call in the firefighters as a last resort. Jeanette said: "I had been getting phone calls while I was out and they were worried that she might break her leg. Not being there I didn't know how tough it was."
Watch commander Andy Rainey, from Bilston fire station, allowed Maisie to have a look and sit inside the fire engine to help her over her ordeal.
He said: "It was no trouble at all."
