A man was rescued after spending two days trapped in an underground storm pipe the width of a large pizza, firefighters in northern California said.
The unnamed man, who is in his 30s, was discovered 15ft underground after passers-by in Antioch heard his cries for help, according to the Contra Costa county fire protection district.
He told rescuers he had climbed into the pipe, with a diameter of 16in (40cm), and had been stuck for two days.
Nearly 50 people needed three and a half hours to free the man, who was uninjured but taken to hospital for evaluation, on Sunday night.
It was unclear why he entered the storm drain. Firefighters said that they were not able to find the point where the man crawled into the pipe, which is part of an extensive underground system designed to handle rainwater.
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“He had crawled into this very small stormwater drainage pipe until he came to a fairly significant debris field and could not go back,” Steve Hill, a district spokesman, told the Bay Area News Group. He added: “Somehow people passing by on a walking path some distance away from the stormwater system managed to hear his cries for help. That’s fairly miraculous because it was pretty windy out there.”
The rescue operation involved four firefighters and rescue crew entering the pipe. The rescuers had to clear tree branches, rubbish and other debris to reach the man, Hill said.
He was responsive and communicated throughout the ordeal, rescuers said.
“As an all-risk fire agency, we train for rare rescues such as this,” Lewis Broschard, the Contra Costa county fire chief, said. “Still, this was a complex and high-risk rescue effort that required extensive specialised resources and the skill and experience of many professionals from across the district to successfully complete.”