Man reveals how he survived after falling into sewage tank in Ōtaki

Emergency services were called to the scene in rural Ōtaki after a man fell into a sewage tank. Photo / 123rf

A man who fell into a sewage tank and was stuck there for 20 minutes said he could have died if his dogs hadn’t raised the alarm.

Mark Humphrey was working on an orchard in rural Ōtaki on Friday when a septic tank lid he was standing on collapsed.

“That’s it. End of story. I was hanging on to a shovel and supporting myself with my arm and my feet braced inside the tank at a right angle,” Humphrey said.

He was waist-deep in sewage having managed to brace his body before becoming fully submerged.

Humphrey yelled for help and his dogs started barking. The commotion alerted other people working further away on the orchard.

They rang emergency services as Humphrey felt himself slipping. He instructed them to put a strop around him and attach the other end to a vehicle to support his weight.

Humphrey wasn’t scared but focused on the practical things he could do.

“I didn’t want to go any deeper.”

Asked what it felt like to be in the tank, Humphrey said: “Pretty sh**ty really”.

“It’s not the kind of thing I would recommend to anyone but it’s an accident and it shows you how fast accidents can happen.”

It could have happened to anyone walking over the lid of the tank, he said.

If there hadn’t been people nearby to respond and his dogs to raise the alarm, Humphrey said he could have died. He estimated he was in the tank for about 20 minutes before firefighters arrived.

“I said to them: ‘Just put a ladder down the hole and I’ll climb out’.”

Fire and Emergency New Zealand shift manager Chris Dalton previously described the tank as being “chocka” with sewage.

“I don’t need to say it to you exactly how horrendous that would’ve been.”

Humphrey asked fire crews to hose him down when he was safely out.

“I took my boots off, told them to hose them and in the end I was just standing in my socks, my undies and a singlet and then I said: ‘Just hose me off’.”

His belongings have since been commercially washed and thrown away.

“I must say Samsung build a good phone - 20 minutes and it still goes,” Humphrey said.

“Submerged for 20 minutes and it works fine. The case and all that I’ve thrown away. My earbuds were in my pocket and they don’t work.”

Humphrey has developed a cough and a chest infection since falling in.

He is concerned it’s related to the fumes from the fall and was arranging a second appointment with his doctor.

“Friday night I could hardly breathe and even now, I feel like I’m puffed.”

He was also going to physio for strained muscles after bracing himself in the tank.

“The doctor said from where I went to where I ended up, it’s the equivalent of falling about eight feet [2.4m] and then stopping yourself with your arms.”

Humphrey had hoped his luck might extend to last Saturday’s Lotto draw but he confirmed: “Lotto didn’t work for me”.

Orchard owner Mike Tracey said Humphrey was very calm throughout the ordeal.

“He’s a pretty cool customer.

“Between us, we managed to work out to hold him up and support him and then we waited - we’d already rung the fire brigade.

“Then it was just a matter of waiting for some extra horsepower to help him out of the hole.”

Tracey said he has since been made aware of similar incidents after talking to people about what happened.

“You do wonder why they have a manhole in a septic tank. They probably should just have little holes where they can drop the hose and suck them out rather than anything that could go wrong.”

Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.