West Midlands fire officers try to free the microwave from Swingler's head. Photo / West Midlands Fire Service
A YouTuber accused of wasting the emergency services' time after cementing his head inside a microwave has refused to apologise.
The streamer, identified as Jay Swingler, laughed when a BBC News reporter said he risked his life in the prank, reported the Daily Mail.
He said: "You've just got to look back at this stuff and smile about it".
When asked whether he thought he had wasted the time of the emergency services, he said: "I don't care, what about people who drink and drive?
"What about people who start fights on the street of the night? Is that not wasting police time as well? And in fact I wasn't wasting their time, they saved my life."
Mr Swingler uploaded the video of the prank and rescue to his YouTube channel, TGFBro.
Mr Swingler, 22, and a group of friends mixed seven bags of Polyfilla before they poured it around his head, which was protected by a plastic bag inside the appliance.
Their intention was to use the microwave as a mould, and by the time emergency services were called at 1.49pm on Wednesday to the garage of a house in Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, the group had already been trying to free him for 90 minutes.
The friends had managed to feed an air tube into his head to help him breathe.
Watch Commander Shaun Dakin, officer in charge of the West Midlands Fire Service crew who responded, said: "As funny as this sounds, this young man could quite easily have suffocated or have been seriously injured."
He added: "Taking the microwave apart was tricky, because a lot of it was welded.
"We video-called our technical rescue colleagues for advice and eventually managed to get him unstuck.
"He was very relieved when we removed a large chunk of the Polyfilla with a screwdriver, allowing him to breathe more easily. But we had to be extremely careful with the screwdriver, working so closely to his head.
"It took us nearly an hour to free him. All of the group involved were very apologetic, but this was clearly a callout which might have prevented us from helping someone else in genuine, accidental need."
And many of the YouTuber's own viewers were not entertained by the stunt.
"This is really sad. Don't do this stuff for views," said an account called HumorBagel.
"All revenue from this video should be donated to the ambulance charity" said viewer Jamie Croft2.
However, some YouTube users disagreed and thought that Mr Swindler had not used the fire service inappropriately.
"It's not wasted emergency services time if they saved someone's life" said user LIL BLIGGA2.
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