California woman drops phone into outhouse, falls in headfirst and gets stuck
A woman who accidentally dropped her phone into the hole of a vault toilet fell in while trying to retrieve it and was trapped for more than an hour.
The incident occurred Tuesday afternoon near the parking lot at the summit of Mount Walker, a 2,800-foot mountain at the east edge of Washington’s Olympic National Park, said a social media post from the Brinnon Fire Department.
The woman, described only as a Californian in her 40s, was trying to retrieve the phone that had fallen into the toilet.
She disassembled and removed the seat so she could lie down and lean into the hole, clinging with one hand to the dog leash she had tied to a support. The leash “failed, and she slid into and fell into the vault headfirst,” the fire department’s report said.
After about 20 minutes of unsuccessfully attempting to climb out, she used her phone to call 911.
Rescue crews responded from the Brinnon and Quilcene fire departments, each about 10 miles away. They handed down items that she could stand on, and when she was within their reach, they pulled her out.
She suffered no physical injuries.
“The patient was washed down and given a Tyvek suit to wear,” the account said. She was “strongly encouraged to seek medical attention” because of her immersion in human waste, “but she only wanted to leave,” the report says.
“She thanked the responders and continued her journey back to California,” it concludes.
Vault toilets on national recreation land generally have a pit at least 5 feet deep that can hold more than 500 gallons of waste.