San Francisco firefighters empty garbage truck to rescue man trapped inside

By Gillian Mohney
SFGate

SAN FRANCISCO — An entire garbage truck was emptied out on Mason Street early Wednesday morning as members of the San Francisco Fire Department frantically searched for a man trapped inside the truck bed.

The driver of the Recology truck had just started their route when they were flagged by a passerby, who reported “sounds of someone yelling” from the garbage area of the vehicle, according to SFFD Capt. Mariano Elias.

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The truck pulled over at the 100 block of Mason Street near the Powell BART stop, and SFFD responded at 4:11 a.m. to locate the trapped person.

Video from the scene showed trash bags piled high near the truck as firefighting personnel crowded around the back of the truck and used long poles to search for the person. The man was eventually rescued before 7 a.m. by firefighting personnel. In the video, he can be seen being transported from the back of the truck via a large white tarp onto a waiting stretcher before he was taken to a local trauma center in San Francisco for treatment.

Elias did not have info on the extent of the man’s injuries or his current condition. But he said the man was responsive when pulled from the truck and was “talking the entire time” during the rescue. He said it’s not clear how the man ended up in the truck.

“I don’t know why he was in there, but it’s very common for people to be found going through trash,” he told SFGATE.

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