Firefighters on Tuesday, March 3, freed a man found stuck in a storm-drain tunnel underneath a Temecula neighborhood – but only after they endured hours of resistance including kicking and thrown items, a Cal Fire/Riverside County captain said.

Capt. Fernando Herrera described the man as “combative.”

More than eight hours after he was discovered in the tunnel just after 1 a.m., the unidentified man was removed and taken to a hospital for treatment of moderate injuries, the department said.

The man was in the area of Hickory Place and Lilac Way, 250 to 270 feet inside the tunnel that feeds from a neighborhood into a storm runoff channel that runs along the Pechanga Parkway.

The tunnel begins at 28 inches in diameter as it meets the channel but narrows under the streets to about 20 inches, Herrera said.

After firefighters, who had been trying to rescue him from behind, entered the tunnel so they were looking at him face-to-face the man’s attitude changed.

“He was able to cooperate, and we talked to him and reassured him, and the rescue was successful at that point,” Herrera said.

Firefighters were also able to assure themselves the man was not armed, Herrera said. He had been throwing personal items at rescuers, who could not see, from behind, what he may have had.

The man did not tell firefighters how he ended up in the tunnel: After he was removed, firefighters concentrated on washing him off and getting him to a hospital, Herrera said.

Firefighters were alerted to the man’s troubles about 1 a.m. after residents heard loud screams.

By about 8 a.m., firefighters had made five attempts to reach him and secure him with a rope to extract him.

“We are trying to calm him down and work with him so we can somehow secure him and get him out,” Herrera said during the rescue. “Normally, someone would want to be rescued and would be working with firefighters, not shouting at them and kicking at them.”