At a height of 7 feet, Tennessee firefighter Brandon Berridge has collected his share of unusual nicknames around the firehouse.
"One of the officers calls me 'Aflac,' because I got to duck all the time," the Tullahoma firefighter told WSMV-TV.
Now he can add "World-Record Holder" to that list.
Berridge, 27, became the world's tallest firefighter after a visit Monday from Guinness World Records, according to WSMV. Representatives from the chronicler of international achievements personally measured the firefighter in order to make the title official and silence any skeptics.
"The inseam of his pants is 44 inches," Fire Chief Richard Shasteen told WSMV. "The manufacturer said, 'No way.' But I said, 'Yes, this boy is 7 feet tall.' ”
And while his height might be an easy source for humor for his colleagues—"We put in smoke detectors, he doesn’t need a ladder," joked one firefighter—Berridge likens it to the good-natured kidding among siblings.
"We’re pretty good with each other, like a second family," he told WSMV.
Tale of the Tape
Tullahoma firefighter Brandon Berridge is the world's tallest firefighter at 7 feet. But how does that height measure up to other tall people?
- Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, actor and pro wrestler: 6'5"
- LeBron James, NBA player: 6'9"
- Shaquille O'Neal, former NBA player: 7'1"
- Peter Mayhew, actor who played the original Chewbacca in "Star Wars": 7'2"
- Andre the Giant, pro wrestler: 7'4"
- Sultan Kösen, tallest living man: 8'2"
- Robert Pershing Wadlow, tallest man ever: 8'11"
