
''One arm was by his head, one was by his hips. There was nothing to hold onto and nothing to push up from. He was really stuck fast. It certainly wasn't what I expected.'' Yusaf said the man was cold and sore. ''I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. I think he just wanted to be out of that pipe.'' The extrication took about 30 to 40 minutes. The flue was ''caked'' in grease about 2-3cm thick, so once fire fighters cut away the steel struts, ''he just drifted out''. The man's shoulder-length, curly hair was ''chocka'' with oil grease, Yusaf said.
'He said to me he was embarrassed. He was obviously really relieved to be out of there.'' He was not the only one. ''We were all covered in the same grease as him,'' Yusaf said. The firemen's uniforms and rescue gear had to be sent away for laundering. They binned their gloves. ''It was hilarious afterwards. It was certainly an unusual one,'' he added. The man was treated for hypothermia at Christchurch Hospital before being discharged. Police have charged the man with burglary and granted him bail to appear in the Christchurch District Court on Monday.
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