A person who had fallen asleep in a dumpster in Sanford, Maine, was nearly hauled away in a garbage truck on Wednesday before firefighters managed to pull them out alive. The dumpster was emptied into the truck with the person still inside it. A specialized rescue team worked them free using ropes and pulleys rigged to a ladder truck. The individual came away from the incident with no injuries.
According to the Sanford Fire Department, a homeless person had been asleep inside a dumpster near the Sanford House of Pizza. At some point that morning, the dumpster was lifted and emptied into a garbage truck, carrying the sleeping person into its container. Crews were called to the scene for what came in as an injured person. They arrived to find someone trapped in the forward section of the truck’s load.
The call was quickly upgraded to a technical rescue, and necessitated a special team. Medics treated the victim while the crew figured out how to get them out safely. Using ropes and pulleys anchored to the ladder truck, the team lifted the person from the truck and lowered them gently to the ground. They were then taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland as a precaution.
The person, who has not been publicly identified, was in stable condition after the rescue. They appeared to have no serious injuries. It was, by any measure, a lucky outcome. An assistant fire chief pointed out that people without a home end up sleeping in strange spots simply to get out of the weather. Unfortunately, that makes for some dangerous situations.
A Rescue That Took Special Training
Getting someone out of a garbage truck isn’t exactly as simple as it may sound. The person was wedged in the forward part of the truck’s load, in a tight, unstable space full of compacted debris. Pulling them out the wrong way could have caused more harm, which is why the call was handed to a technical rescue team. Those crews train specifically for confined spaces and awkward, high-stakes extractions like this one.
Not every department has a team like that. The assistant chief noted that many smaller towns lack the equipment and training for work like this, so they call on departments that do. Sanford’s crew handles rescues from heights, from below, and from tight spaces that most responders aren’t equipped for. On Wednesday, that training is what turned a potential tragedy into a stable patient on the way to the hospital.
Why It Happens More Often Than You’d Think
As unusual as it sounds, this is not the first time someone has been scooped up while sleeping in a dumpster. In fact, this very same thing has played out several times across the country, from Texas to Florida, often with the same frightening setup. A dumpster looks like shelter, especially in bad weather, and a person inside is almost impossible to see before it’s emptied. The danger is enormous, since garbage trucks are built to compact whatever they collect.
That’s the quiet point underneath a story like this one. The fire chief’s reminder wasn’t really about garbage trucks at all, but more about people who really don’t have anywhere safe to sleep. For the haulers who empty those bins, a quick look inside can prevent the worst. This time, a stranger in a dumpster got very lucky, and a trained crew made sure their morning ended at a hospital instead of somewhere far worse.