The London Fire Brigade wants you to be careful with penis rings

On 29 December, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) tweeted something a little unexpected.

If you were caught off-guard - don't worry, we were too. However, there is a reason behind it.

The tweet was part of a campaign over the Christmas period to draw attention to time-wasting and non-emergency calls it has received, in an attempt to make people think twice before calling.

Between 2010 and 2014 there were 8,600 hoax calls to the LFB, with 1,543 instances of people stuck in furniture, toilet seats or everyday objects.

Some of the more outlandish incidents include a man with rings stuck on his penis, a goose trapped on a roof, and a woman wanting firefighters to warm up her baby's milk.

In addition there were 2,868 animal rescues, which the Brigade prefer were referred to the RSPCA, and 187,335 false alarms resulting from automatic fire alarms.

However, the LFB did not disclose anything about incidents regarding partridges in pear trees, sadly.