By Associated Press - Wednesday, March 4, 2020

TEMECULA, Calif. (AP) - Southern California firefighters spent more than eight hours trying to free a man stuck in an underground storm drain as he resisted rescue.

Residents of a Temecula neighborhood reported hearing the man’s screams around 1 a.m. Tuesday.

Cal Fire Riverside County firefighters found the man was more than 200 feet into the narrow diameter tunnel but he kicked and threw things at them.



Fire Capt. Fernando Herrera told The Press-Enterprise the man was “combative.”

Firefighters had approached the man from behind but eventually approached from the other direction to talk him face-to-face and he began cooperating.

When the man was extracted, firefighters washed him off and took him to a hospital.

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