A KITTEN was rescued by a firefighter after getting stuck behind a fireplace.

Bacup Fire Service was called to a house on Market Street in Whitworth, when a family could not get their kitten out from behind the fireplace.

John Hamer spent 15 minutes trying to get the kitten free. The six-month-old rescue kitten was stuck for half an hour before the firefighter managed to get her free.

He said: “It was quite a small hole, and the kitten managed to squeeze into it. She was frightened but not hurt in any way. She was just glad to be out.

“The kitten was in distress being there for that long. The family were very grateful when I got her out, they were so happy they jokingly said I should keep her.”

Mr Hamer said it was not common to receive calls on trapped kittens. He said: “It is quite unusual to get this kind of call, it doesn’t happen often.

“The first thing I was thinking when I got the call was how I was going to get the kitten out. We had to remove the fireplace and then reach out to get her out of the hole she was stuck in.”