Man rescued alive from garbage truck after passer-by hears screams from inside

A garbage truck had already picked up its first load of the morning and compacted the rubbish inside.

Then someone walking nearby heard screaming.

The passer-by flagged down the driver of the Recology truck in San Francisco and told him that someone appeared to be yelling from inside.

The driver stopped the vehicle. When he switched it off, he could hear the cries for help too.

Buried somewhere beneath the compressed rubbish was a man — alive and unable to get out.

What followed was an unusual rescue operation involving about 25 firefighters who spent more than two hours digging through the truck's contents by hand.

The incident began shortly after 4am on Wednesday on Mason Street in downtown San Francisco, near the Powell Street BART station.

The San Francisco Fire Department was called at about 4.11am after the truck driver was alerted to the shouting.

Fire officials believe the man had been inside a dumpster before its contents were mechanically lifted and emptied into the garbage truck.

Exactly why he had entered the dumpster remains under investigation. Fire officials said he may have been searching through the rubbish for food or other items.

The truck had already compacted the rubbish once before the driver was stopped, according to fire department spokesman Capt Mariano Elias.

The man was completely buried under the debris.

Getting him out presented rescuers with another problem.

Firefighters knew approximately where the man's voice was coming from, but simply dumping the contents of the truck onto the street could have caused further injuries.

Instead, crews began removing the rubbish manually.

Around 25 firefighters worked for more than two hours, pulling bags and debris from the vehicle piece by piece as they tried to reach him.

Throughout much of the operation, rescuers could still communicate with the trapped man.

“I personally heard him yell a few times,” Elias told People. “I don't know if that was in pain or just frustration.”

Pictures and video released by the San Francisco Fire Department showed firefighters surrounding the truck as a huge pile of rubbish accumulated on the street.

Rescuers eventually managed to reach one of the man's arms before they could fully free him.

That allowed paramedics to start an intravenous drip while firefighters continued removing the rubbish.

The treatment was intended to reduce the risk of crush syndrome, a potentially life-threatening complication that can occur after someone has been trapped or compressed for an extended period.

The condition can develop when damaged muscle tissue releases substances into the bloodstream after pressure is relieved, potentially causing serious complications including kidney and heart problems.

The man remained conscious and was able to communicate with rescuers during the operation.

Firefighters finally removed the man from the truck before 7am.

He was placed on a stretcher and taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, where he was reported to be in serious condition.

One firefighter also suffered a cut to the hand during the rescue and required stitches.

The incident was highly unusual, according to Recology, the company operating the garbage truck.

Company spokesman Robert Reed told local media that the last similar incident involving one of its trucks in San Francisco occurred about 15 years ago.

Authorities are continuing to investigate exactly how the man ended up inside the dumpster.

But his discovery ultimately came down to someone on the street noticing something that did not belong amid the early-morning noise of a garbage collection.

Someone was screaming from inside the truck.

And they stopped to listen.