Firefighters rescue man trapped for hours inside San Francisco garbage truck

Firefighters rescued a man from a garbage truck in San Francisco.

The trapped man was discovered when the driver of the Recology commercial collection truck was emptying a dumpster Wednesday at a hotel on the 100 block of Mason Street and heard yelling, according to Robert Reed, a spokesman for Recology. He immediately shut off the truck to investigate and realized that the yelling was coming from inside the body of the vehicle, Reed said.

The driver opened a hatch on the outside of the truck and was able to speak briefly with the man who had become trapped inside, Reed said. The driver then called 911.

It’s unclear what the man was doing inside the dumpster when the driver picked it up and emptied it into the back of the truck. The San Francisco Fire Department speculated that he might have been scavenging inside .

When the waste management company’s commercial collection drivers pick up dumpsters, they first lift them up and intentionally shake them in an effort to confirm that no one is inside, Reed said.

When firefighters arrived, they opened the rear end of the truck and used pike poles to remove the garbage by hand, said Samuel Menchaca, a public information officer with the Fire Department. Video the department shared on social media showed firefighters standing atop a mound of garbage in the street as paramedics stood by with a gurney.

The driver used the compactor once before realizing someone was inside, Menchaca said. Fearing the man suffered crush injuries, paramedics reached his arm through the trash and administered medication through an IV as the two-hour rescue stretched on, he said.

The man, who was conscious when he was removed from the truck, was taken to a hospital. His condition as of Thursday was unknown.

Menchaca said he’s encountered people trapped in dumpsters during his 10 years with the Fire Department, but crews usually can rescue them with a ladder. This was considered a technical rescue — one that required special tools and skills — because the man was buried deep in the truck and was unable to get himself out.

It was also uniquely hazardous because waste in dumpsters can include items such as knives, glass, needles, batteries and vermin, Menchaca said. One firefighter suffered a laceration injury and was taken to a hospital in stable condition, he said.