This English fire service used fridges to rescue people stranded by the flooding

As rescue operations go, few are as chilled as this one.

Fire officers helping residents stranded in their homes due to flooding were forced to improvise when parts of Carlisle basically became a river.

With a rescue dinghy floating outside homes in need of evacuation, officers had to find a way of safely getting people out.

The answer? Putting them in fridges, of course.

Yep, officers actually filled fridges with polystyrene or insulation to create makeshift dinghies.

And, judging by the faces of those on board, it actually looked quite fun.

It comes as thousands of people were forced to leave their homes after mass flooding hit parts of the UK as a result of Storm Desmond.

Fire services were joined by members of the armed forces as part of the relief effort.

This team and their fridge, working on Warwick Road, Carlisle, said the residents were nothing short of “inspirational” in the wake of the flooding.

Where the fridge came from and whose idea it was to use it as a boat, we will never know.

But there are surely few weirder ways to get rescued.