Wife saves husband who fell into garbage chute

A 74-year-old Vancouver, Washington man is recovering after getting trapped in a garbage chute.

Bob Swingle is known as a good guy at the Smith Tower Apartments in Vancouver.

His reputation came to life Sunday afternoon when he tried to unblock a garbage chute on the tenth floor.

Before he knew it, he fell in.

“Both he and his wife do such good things here” said Vivienne Linneman.

Swingle’s wife, Ginny, jumped into action, holding onto Swingle’s legs for dear life.

It took firefighters just under five minutes to arrive at the scene.

“We saw that half of this man was in the garbage and this goes down a hundred feet,“ said Vancouver Fire Captain Jason Ingram.

Things actually got worse when the fire crews arrived.

“Once he started to pull his hips, he slipped through the opening, his pants came off and he started to slide down.“ Ingram recalled.

Ingram and his partner used all of their strength to pull him to safety.

Swingle was treated and released from the hospital.

He suffered scrapes and bruises.