A man somehow ended up inside a San Francisco garbage truck early Wednesday morning, and nobody realized he was there until someone heard yelling coming from the back.
That was already a bad place to be.
The truck had been collecting commercial dumpsters on its route when the man was loaded in with the trash. By the time a passerby got the driver’s attention, the truck’s compactor had already been activated at least once.
Getting him back out would take about two hours, 25 firefighters and one very large pile of garbage in the middle of a San Francisco street.
Something In The Back
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The Recology driver had just started the route when a passerby heard someone yelling from the garbage compartment and flagged the truck down, SFGATE reported.
The truck stopped on Mason Street near Eddy Street, and the San Francisco Fire Department was dispatched at about 4:11 a.m.
KTVU reported that firefighters said the man had been digging through a dumpster before the Recology truck picked it up and emptied its contents into the back. SFFD spokesperson Mariano Elias separately told SFGATE that firefighters had not yet established why the man was inside.
By then, there was another problem.
KTVU reported that the driver had already used the truck’s compactor at least once before learning someone was trapped inside.
Start Digging
Firefighters could not simply dump everything onto the street.
They were concerned that doing so could hurt the man even more, so crews began removing the truck’s contents by hand while searching through the pile with long poles.
Video from the scene shows garbage spilling across Mason Street as firefighters work around the back of the truck.
The man was completely buried beneath what KTVU described as roughly 30 cubic yards of debris.
Twenty-five firefighters eventually joined the effort.
They could hear and communicate with the man during the rescue. Paramedics managed to reach one of his arms through the trash and start an IV while he was still buried.
One firefighter suffered a minor cut to his hand during the work.
Still Talking
Crews finally reached the man after roughly two hours.
Video shows firefighters moving him out of the garbage truck on a large tarp before transferring him to a stretcher.
He remained conscious and responsive throughout the rescue. Elias told SFGATE the man was talking the entire time.
The man was taken to a San Francisco trauma center for treatment. Fire officials had not released the extent of his injuries Wednesday morning or determined whether they came from being loaded into the truck, buried beneath the garbage or the compactor.
Recology spokesperson Robert Reed told The San Francisco Standard that this sort of rescue is exceptionally uncommon for the company.
The last time he could recall San Francisco firefighters rescuing someone from one of its trucks was about 15 years ago.