A man was rescued from inside a San Francisco rubbish truck after being tipped into the vehicle with the contents of a commercial dumpster early on Wednesday, 2 September.
Firefighters were called to the 100 block of Mason Street, near Eddy Street in the Union Square area, at about 4.11am after a passer-by heard shouting from the back of the Recology vehicle and alerted the driver.
The man had reportedly been searching inside the dumpster before it was emptied into the front-loading truck. The driver activated the compactor once before it became clear that somebody was trapped inside.
Firefighters spent two hours clearing rubbish
Twenty-five members of the San Francisco Fire Department worked carefully through the truck’s contents, removing the rubbish by hand rather than emptying it all at once for fear of worsening the man’s injuries.
He was buried beneath an estimated 30 cubic yards of debris. Paramedics were able to reach one of his arms and administer medication through an intravenous line while he remained partially covered.
After roughly two hours, rescuers freed the conscious man and took him to hospital. Officials said the extent and cause of his injuries were not yet known, including whether they were caused by the fall into the truck, the weight of the rubbish or the compactor.
One firefighter suffered a minor cut to the hand during the operation.
Recology said the truck was being operated by a sole driver collecting waste from large bins used by commercial customers. A company spokesman described the incident as highly unusual, saying it was believed to be the first time in about 15 years that somebody had been rescued from one of its vehicles by San Francisco firefighters.
Once the rescue had ended, construction equipment was used to clear the waste that had been spread across Mason Street and return it to a dumpster.
The incident remains under investigation. Firefighters also plan to speak to the man in hospital to establish what happened before he entered the dumpster.
