Warning: This story contains details that may be disturbing for some readers.

WATERBURY, Conn. (WTNH) — Police in Connecticut have released footage of firefighters removing a 32-year-old man from the home where he had allegedly been held captive for 20 years.

The man, who reportedly weighed less than 70 pounds when he was found last month, has since described to police the shocking conditions under which he was allegedly held. His stepmother was later arrested and arraigned on kidnapping and cruelty charges, among others.

“In 33 years in law enforcement, this is the worst treatment of humanity that I’ve ever witnessed,” Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said at a press conference last week.

Police and fire crews first responded to a fire at the Waterbury home on Feb. 17. Two people, 56-year-old Kimberly Sullivan and a 32-year-old man, later identified as her stepson, were inside at the time. Sullivan was able to evacuate safely, and the man was helped out by firefighters.

Body-camera footage released by the Waterbury Police shows an officer interacting with Sullivan, who was asking for help from the sidewalk outside the home. She was holding a small dog in her hands.

“My stepson is in here,” she can be seen shouting to first responders.

When a blurred figure emerges from the house, Sullivan says, “Oh, here he is.”

“My dog is shaking,” she added.

A first responder then walks Sullivan away from the house. Near the end of the footage, the video shows a firefighter carrying someone away from the home and into an ambulance.

Police said the 32-year-old man, who has not been publicly identified, used a lighter, hand sanitizer and paper to set fire to his room to escape. He told authorities he had been held captive since he was 11 years old.

“I wanted my freedom,” he told first responders, according to police.

Police said the victim was found in an extremely emaciated state, with matted hair and rotted teeth, according to an arrest warrant for Sullivan. Investigators determined he was confined most days to a back storage room that measured eight feet by nine feet. He was allowed out for short periods of time, between 15 minutes to a few hours per day, but usually for chores, he told officials.

During interviewing, the man detailed an alleged life of abuse. At first, he said, he was only locked in his room at night. He claimed he recalled drinking water from a toilet because he only received two glasses of water per day.

He claimed he was given no access to a toilet after a time and was left to urinate in bottles and defecate onto a paper and dispose of it in the garbage when he was let out to do chores.

He also said he was pulled out of school after the school called the Department of Children and Families (DCF) twice after he kept asking students for their food during lunchtime because he was allegedly being starved at home, the affidavit said.

His only connection to the outside world, according to the affidavit, was a radio kept outside his bedroom, where he would listen to local radio stations and use that as a way to keep track of the date and year. He educated himself by using a dictionary and reading the three books per year he was permitted to have.

“It was worse than the conditions of a jail cell,” Spagnolo said.

Police said that the man’s father died last year and was wheelchair-bound after a stroke. His biological mother was also not part of his upbringing, the Associated Press reported, citing investigators.

Sullivan was arraigned Wednesday on charges of second-degree kidnapping, first-degree assault, first-degree unlawful restraint, cruelty to persons and first-degree reckless endangerment. She posted a $300,000 bond and was released from custody on Thursday.

Sullivan’s lawyer, Ioannis Kaloidis, has also indicated there’s more to the story.

“He was not locked in the room, she did not restrain him in any way, she provided food, she provided shelter,” Kaloidis said. “She is blown away by these allegations.”