EMERGENCY services in Worcestershire had a busy new year, rescuing four people from a house fire and helping care for drunken revellers.

Four men were taken to Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester following a house fire in Walton Close, Birchen Coppice, Kidderminster, at about 10pm on New Year’s Eve. Three ambulance crews attended and all four men were suffering from suspected smoke inhalation.

Over the course of New Year’s Eve and into the early hours of New Year’s Day ambulance crews attended 147 mainly drink-related incidents in Worcestershire and 1,730 across the West Midlands region.

However, the volume of new year calls was down on last year when there were more than 2,000 calls, 643 before midnight and 1,407 after midnight.

In the last four hours of 2011, the West Midlands Ambulance Service received 548 calls, of which over 10 per cent (59 incidents) were in Worcestershire.

The bulk of the incidents (248) were in Birmingham and the Black Country while Herefordshire had the fewest incidents (12).

In the first five hours of 2012, the service received 1,182 calls, of which 88 were in Worcestershire.

Again, the largest number of calls (577) were from Birmingham and the Black Country and the fewest from Herefordshire (35).

In Herefordshire, the busiest hour was between 3am and 4am with 13 calls while in Worcestershire the busiest hour was between 1am and 2am with 25 calls.

Chris Morgan, a supervisor within West Mercia Police force control room, said: “We had a tremendous amount of calls but we feel it wasn’t as busy as normal. The majority of the calls were drink-related and we had the odd domestic.”

To help free up availability of ambulances and capacity at A&E departments, a temporary minor injury unit (TMIU) operated in Birmingham.

Staffed by West Midlands Ambulance Service, volunteers from the Red Cross, St John Ambulance, community first responders and doctors and nurses from the West Midlands CARE Team, the TMIU in Birmingham treated 46 people, only two of which had to go to hospital.

Officer in charge Tracey Morrell said: “The majority of the cases involved stitching lacerations and head wounds; the result of assaults or trips and falls. We all worked well together to keep people out of Accident and Emergency departments.”

Chief executive Anthony Marsh said: “Once again our staff did a fantastic job to ensure the safety of everyone in the West Midlands, including those visiting our area to celebrate the new year.”