The man, who doesn’t want his name used for privacy reasons, told his astounding story to The Telegram, fighting emotion at times in describing how he managed to inch his way out of the abandoned septic tank he estimates was 7 1/2 to 8 feet deep.
He barely managed to keep from drowning in the thick slime, which was over his head.
And no one knew where he was because the man, who works turnaround shifts, stays in a trailer at an RV park near the Bull Arm fabrication site during his work rotation to save commuting time, coming home to St. John’s for his week off.
On the evening of July 23, he decided to drive 22 kilometres to a salmon river near Goobies to see if the fish were running.
On an old railway bridge near the T’Railway, the man looked out toward a bend in the river and decided to take a footpath in that direction. Around 8:30 p.m. it was getting duckish and he wanted to get back to the RV park before dark.
He decided to take a shortcut back to the road.
Walking tentatively through the weed-filled clearing, one foot went down and he thought he’d struck a bog. But before he could save himself, the man fell down into a slimy hole, becoming imprisoned in the maggoty sludge that stank of rotting flesh.
The man said he suspected it was a septic tank because he recognized the concrete form from having seen a friend install one.
But it was no outhouse smell he was smelling — rather it seemed something had died in there, based on the presence of the maggots.
The man was badly bruised and had fractured his arm in the fall. He tried to reach the top of the hole to grab on to the edge, but could not.
He couldn’t see anything but the sludge and the concrete.
He can’t swim and fears water so much that he avoids boats.
He figures his head went underwater at least a few times and is unsure how long he was in the hole — maybe 10 minutes, maybe 15.
“I remember going down (under). I don’t know how many times — three, four or five times,” he said, filling with emotion.
Then, he says, something came over him — a sense of calm.
“I wasn’t crying. I wasn’t bawling out or nothing,” he said, sitting with his arm in a sling at the kitchen table of his St. John’s home with his wife and sister. His fingers are still swollen, but nowhere near the level of swelling in his arm and shoulder that night.
“I remember thinking, I’m going to go to sleep now. I am going to see Dad,” he said.
His father died nine years ago.
“I got really peaceful. It didn’t really bother me.”
“It would bother us, what happened,” said his sister, choking up.
But as strong as the peaceful feeling that came over him, another sensation shook him awake. His wife and sister call it the touch of an angel — his father intervening to show him the way out.
“I just woke up and started swearing, getting mad at myself,” he said.
“I remember saying, ‘Dad, please don’t let me die in this shithole tonight.’
“Whatever happened when I said that, I just came back to life.”
Sloshing around in the hole, he suddenly saw an old pipe sticking out of the wall, and after a rest of about 30 seconds, decided that was his one and only chance of escape.
“I don’t know how I got my leg up on the pipe,” he said, adding he feared it might give way.
A thin alder branch hanging overhead gave him some balance as he inched his way up.
Finally he got one hand on the concrete lip of the hole and braced from the pain as he swung his injured arm up so he could crawl out.
“It was my only chance,” he said.
He rolled away from the hole and lay there looking at the sky and shaking. Then he steeled himself against the cool night and willed himself up.
“You get the Jesus up,” he bawled to himself. “Get the f--k away from the hole.”
The man saw an old bus and thought about heading in that direction, but then decided to go back the way he came, as it was his best bet of finding solid ground.
Back at his car, about 200 feet away, the man saw someone fishing on the bridge, but he was set on getting back to his trailer and showering off the maggots. As he’d misplaced his phone, he went to a neighbour’s and called his wife, telling her that he needed someone to come get him. He didn’t share the details — not wanting her to find out on the phone — and she thought he’d had a workplace accident. Family members drove out while she babysat their children. They took him to hospital in St. John’s for treatment.
Had he not crawled out of the hole, his family might never have known what happened to him. The man said the police would have spotted his car on the roadside and maybe a police dog could have tracked his scent.
But he might have also been just another missing person no one ever found, his wife acknowledged.
“I wouldn’t know it until I got a phone call from work wondering where (he) was to and why he wasn’t showing up to work,” she said.
“(When he told me), I never slept. All I could do was think of him in that hole.”
The man figures he is lucky he was wearing rubber boots and not chest waders, as the liquid would have filled up the waders, making it impossible to drag himself out of the hole.
He also credits a confined space safety course he was required to take for his job with helping him cope.
Four days after he escaped, he and a friend — equipped with long poles — went looking for the hole to pinpoint it for authorities. His friend called out when he found a hole, but when the man looked, he said it wasn’t the hole, but another similar one. The newfound hole would have been in his direct path had he decided to take the route towards the abandoned bus after crawling out of his hell on earth.
The stench of rotten flesh was so bad in their car, he and his wife have since replaced the seat.
The man, who is off work for at least four months, wants the holes dredged, to make sure there are no human remains inside, and then sealed or backfilled to prevent anyone else from falling in.
The man recalled that more than 20 years ago, there was a service station and motel near the site.
Although it may be animal flesh he smelled, he can’t help but wonder if someone else fell in the hole and did not live to tell about it.
Seeking site
Service NL said Tuesday it is trying to locate an abandoned septic tank a St. John’s man fell into near Goobies, finding himself over his head in slimy, maggot-filled water.
Days after the July 23 ordeal, the man and his friend located the hole, as well as a second hole, on the site by a river about four kilometres east of Goobies, and took photographs. They’d been trying to identify the area to report it to authorities.
Service NL was handed the file by the Clarenville RCMP after the St. John’s man reported the incident to police.
The detachment told The Telegram it has no further involvement in the case.
The man, however, wants the hole — which he suspects was an abandoned septic tank — investigated to make sure no human remains are in it, as he said it smelled like rotting flesh. It’s also possible it contains animal remains.
Before he fell in it, the hole was obscured by thick brush.
A spokesman for Service NL said the land used to have a motel and the department is trying to locate, not only the holes, but the current owners of the private land.
Remediation of an abandoned structure would be the responsibility of the owner, the spokesman said.
St. John’s Liberal MHA Tom Osborne said the near-tragedy raises a number of issues and warnings to the public.
One is people should be cautious when walking in areas where structures once existed.
“There needs to be greater awareness of abandoned wells and septic systems,” he said, adding over time covers can rot away or be moved by curious people who happen upon them.
Whoever owns the site may not have been aware the holes are no longer covered, Osborne said.
He said Service NL has been helpful and has tried to locate the holes, keeping safety in mind.
Because of the reported smell of rotten flesh in the area, Osborne agrees its source — human or animal — should be investigated.
“Obviously law enforcement should go in and have a look,” he said, noting the location is popular, given the river and a parking area there.
“There is potential, certainly, somebody else may have fallen in there.”