PA Crews Rescue Man Trapped in Sewer for Days

Construction workers at the Walnut Street Commons building heard a man calling for help early Tuesday, and the sounds appeared to be coming from somewhere under their work truck.

The workers called 911 at 7:50 a.m. Tuesday, and Allentown firefighters arrived and could also hear the man. They narrowed down the man’s whereabouts to the sewer in the area of Law Street, behind the parking garage attached to the Walnut Street Commons, fire Capt. John Christopher said.

Firefighters opened a nearby manhole and directed the man toward them, then helped him up the sewer ladder, Christopher said.

The man was taken to a local hospital for treatment, he said.

“Evidently the guy had been down there a while,” Christopher said. “Sounded like he was down there for some time, days.”

Christopher said the man was dirty from being down in the sewer for so long and had signs of dehydration and exposure. Still, he appeared to be in decent shape.

"He was able to come up the ladder pretty much on his own,” he said.

It’s unclear why the man was in the sewer, and how and where he got into the system, Christopher said.

Christopher said the man was “very reluctant to tell us anything about how he got down there.”

The man’s name was not released and he was described as being in his 30s.

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