RIVERSIDE — Firefighters rescued a man that was stuck in a manhole Saturday afternoon in Riverside.
>>PHOTOS: Officers and medics on scene of report of man stuck in manhole in Riverside
Police and medics were dispatched to the 500 block of Reading Road at around 4:08 p.m. following initial reports the man had been stuck for three days, according to initial scanner traffic.
News Center 7′s Taylor Robertson was on scene when firefighters pulled the man out just before 5:30 p.m. late Saturday afternoon.
Police did give her an update on camera but Robertson spoke with people in the neighborhood.
Jack Law and his friend were walking towards Reading Road from a back lake when he had noticed a manhole cover was not on the hole that past two days.
“We kind of took a look at it and we were worried about somebody falling in,” he told Robertson. “I saw somebody down there and assumed they were working.”
Law said they yelled down and asked if the man was okay.
“The guy said, ‘yeah.’ We got a few steps away and we saw a couple of tools in the woods and no trucks around and we were like, yeah, something’s not right,” he told Robertson. “There was no rack to climb up anything and it’s like a 30-35 foot straight drop.”
>>Richmond Toxic Fire: EPA searching for, removing debris from schools in both Indiana, Ohio
He asked the man if he needed help.
“The guy just kind of moaned,” said Law. “We looked at each other, yelled back down there again. You know, we’re going to go ahead and call somebody and he called them.”
He described to Robertson what the man was like after being pulled up.
“You could see his shoe was off, his foot was messed up, he was shaking real bad,” described Law. “He broke his ankle and I hope that was it. But the guy was in rough shape.”
News Center 7′s cameras were rolling when firefighters pulled the man out of the hole Saturday afternoon and got him onto a stretcher.
>>Warren County man turns himself in; Wanted on rape, pandering obscenity involving minor charges
Robertson also spoke with Patricia Gillis. She lives nearby and can’t believe she never heard the man call for help.
“We didn’t hear anything,” she said. “Nothing. It’s amazing that we didn’t hear him.”
Gillis and her family watched the rescue from their back deck.
“They put the little pyramid thing and started doing the ropes and stuff,” she told Robertson. “The firemen went down with the backboard with the safety equipment to keep his neck stabilized and everything, and then they pulled him out.”
>>Safety advisory issued to UD community after 4 cars stolen overnight, multiple attempted thefts
News Center 7 has reached out to Riverside Police for additional information as to what happened including who he is and how he got down there in the first place.
Firefighters from Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton and Huber Heights provided mutual aid.
We are working to learn his condition and will provide updates on this story.
0 of 14
©2023 Cox Media Group
