FAIRBANKS — A Fairbanks man was stuck beneath his shower for three days before he was rescued, Alaska State Troopers said Sunday.
Authorities went to a residence for a welfare check and heard a man yelling for help, according to the Troopers’ dispatch log. They forced entry and found a 67-year-old man stuck beneath the platform on which his shower was built.
The man fell headfirst into “a small void-space behind the shower,” said University Fire Department Battalion Chief Forrest Kuiper. He wiggled farther into the space in an attempt to turn around, but couldn’t get out.
Kuiper said the man was in good shape. He was able to reach a water bottle from the spot he was trapped but didn’t eat for three days. He refused medical attention.
“It took about an hour and a half,” Kuiper said about rescuing the man. “We had to cut from outside the residence to get inside and open up a hole between two studs in the wall and pull him out. We thought we could get him from the inside but we were unable to without removing the shower, and it was taking too long.”
Kuiper said it was a multi-family housing unit, and the man tried banging on the wall when he was stuck, but nobody in the building made a connection.
“It’s fairly bizarre. We’ve seen some bizarre stuff and that was up there,” Kuiper said.
