INKSTER (WWJ) – An Inkster man was critically injured Thursday when his leg got caught in a stump grinder.

Fire officials said the horrific accident happened as the man in his 30s was working alone with the rented machine outside his home on Fairwood, in the area of Cherry Hill and Inkster Road.

Inkster Fire Chief John Adams said that when the man stepped in front of the stump grinder/wood chipper while it was running, his leg was somehow pulled in and got stuck up to the thigh.

“Basically, the device itself actually had mangled his entire left leg,” said Adams. “Our crews had to extricate him from the particular piece of equipment. As a result, we contacted mutual aid, and we had other departments in the area responding.”

When emergency crews couldn’t get man out right away, a doctor with Oakwood Hospital was called in to sedate him, Adams said.

“The human body’s extremely fragile, and when we think about the device that we’re referring to subsequently coming in contact with the body, tearing it up…now we are seeing a lot of trauma,” Adams said. “And him being trapped in the device and they couldn’t immediately remove him, that would cause that call to go out instantly.”

Once freed, the man was taken by Life Flight to University of Michigan Hospital in critical condition. Officials said the man’s leg would likely have to be amputated.

The man’s name was not released.