Firefighters rescue teenager trapped in 'Barney' dinosaur mask

TRUSSVILLE, Ala., June 22 (UPI) -- An Alabama teenager received some help at the local fire house after her head and shoulders became stuck inside a Barney dinosaur head.

Darby Risner, 15, said she found a fiberglass Barney head belonging to her church during a sleepover Sunday night and decided to put it on as a prank to scare her friends.

Risner told ABC News she sat down with the head on and it "wobbled and scooched down" over her shoulders, becoming stuck just above the elbows and leaving her with "short little Barney arms."

The girl's friends soon found they were unable to remove the dinosaur head from Risner's body.

"They laid me down on the floor and Meredith took my feet and Sam took the head and they both pulled opposite directions," Risner told WVTM-TV.

"The head was closing in on me,'' she told Al.com. "It was like a stuck-in-a-small-place-and-can't-get-out-panicking."

A friend's mother drove Risner to the Trussville Fire Department.

"When they walked in, you couldn't help but start laughing,'' Trussville Fire Lt. Vince Bruno said. "We tried to be professional, and she was a little distraught, but we had to giggle about it."

Bruno said the sight was unique in his 33 years on the job.

He said firefighters were able to "slide it right off" after making a few "release cuts" in the fiberglass. The teenager said she was inside the mask for about 45 minutes.

Audrey Shannon said she did not learn about the girl's adventure until the next day.

"When my girlfriend told me, 'So did you hear about Darby's little adventure?' I was a little worried at first," Shannon said. "But then when I found out it was all about the Barney head, I laughed so hard. All the mascara ran off my face."

Risner's brother, Logan, posted photos and a short video to Twitter chronicling the girl's struggle with the dinosaur head.