A peculiar rescue unfolded in downtown Loveland on Monday, when firefighters, first responders, and law enforcement teamed up to extract an individual from an unexpected predicament on top of a trash truck. According to KDVR, the incident occurred behind the downtown post office, drawing in units from Loveland Fire Rescue Authority (LFRA), Thompson Valley EMS, and the Loveland Police Department.
As reported by Denver7, the individual was not only injured but trapped atop the sanitation vehicle which necessitated a coordinated rescue effort involving a rescue basket, and a rope system. The assiduous rescue team also made use of a fire truck tower to safely lower the person to the ground, where medical services were waiting.
The circumstances that led to the man’s presence on the truck were not immediately clear. However, as detailed by the Reporter-Herald on the incident, Samuel Leighton, an LFRA lieutenant revealed, "The operator told us that he brought the dumpster up, it's one of those trash trucks that lift the dumpster over the front of the truck and then he heard a thud on the roof. He got out and looked and the guy had landed over the cab and not in the trash compartment."
LFRA then implemented what is known as a "pick off" maneuver to facilitate the man's descent. "What we do is attach the rescue basket, which is called a Stokes basket, to the bottom of the ladder truck. We bring that to the victim, put them in that, and then they get hoisted to the ground," Lieutenant Leighton explained, per Reporter-Herald. Further details, such as the man's identity, or the reasons why he found himself in the dumpster in the first place, remain as of yet undisclosed. The focus remains squarely on the victim's physical state and not the story of how he got there.
