Drivers see arm waving from storm drain, discover trapped man, Arizona officials say
Two women spotted an arm waving from an Arizona storm drain Thursday morning, officials said.
They pulled over their cars and found a man in his 30s trapped in the hole and called 911, according to the Glendale Fire Department.
The man told fire officials he climbed into a storm drain on Tuesday because he was “having a bad day.”
He climbed into a hole at Thunderbird Paseo Park and began walking through the drain system until he became trapped, officials said.
At first, low oxygen levels in the storm drain were a concern during the rescue.
“Oftentimes confined spaces will be oxygen deficient and survivability in that environment is very low,” Glendale Fire Department captain and spokesperson Ashley Losch told McClatchy News.
But Losch said rescue crew members monitored oxygen levels in the storm drain and they were normal.
Firefighters used a ladder to retrieve him from the rainfall runoff system, and they transported him to a hospital, though he didn’t have “any obvious injuries,” officials said.
He was rescued more than a mile away from where he climbed into a storm drain.
Fire crews have responded to calls of people becoming trapped in storm drains before, but Losch said data was not available.
Glendale is about 10 miles northwest of Phoenix.
This story was originally published October 1, 2021 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Drivers see arm waving from storm drain, discover trapped man, Arizona officials say."
