Woman in critical condition after falling into trash chute at high-rise apartment building

DAYTON — A woman is in critical condition after being stuck in a Dayton high-rise apartment building’s trash compactor.

First responders were dispatched to the 400 block of Dayton Tower Drive shortly before 10 a.m. for a rescue in the building after janitors heard a woman yelling for help.

>> PHOTOS: Person rescued after falling into trash chute at high-rise apartment building

Crews found the woman in the basement. She’d already fallen from a trash chute toward a trash door opening by a compactor.

The woman was “severely entangled in the trash compactor,” according to Nick Judge, District Chief for the Dayton Fire Department.

The fire department told us they spoke with building maintenance, as well as the manufacturer of the chute and trash compactor in hopes of gaining more knowledge of how things worked and minimizing the risk while cutting the woman free.

“All of our saws and cutting devices all emit sparks and we had someone laying in a dumpster full of combustibles,” Judge said.

As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, rescue team members and other first responders were able to get the woman out of the compactor after about 90 minutes.

Firefighters shut down the building’s elevators during the rescue. The move stranded hundreds of residents, many of whom weren’t sure what was going on.

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“I have a three-legged dog I have to bring down 10 flights of stairs. I’m not happy about that, Jody Thomas said. “But I didn’t realize someone got caught in the trash chute.”

Thomas said he was scared for the woman’s safety and survival. He told News Center 7 that each floor has a trash chute that only comes down a 45-degree angle, making it tough to fall in.

Firefighters said one of the reasons the woman has survived so far is due to the extra help they requested. Miami Valley Hospital sent two doctors and a surgical team to the scene, which provided medications and treatment during the rescue that would be outside firefighters’ scope of expertise.

Investigators are now working to learn how the woman ended up in the chute and how long she had been down there.

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