An unhappy camper spent about 15 minutes submerged in sewage in the putrid tank of a California campground’s vault toilet after falling in trying to retrieve sunglasses he dropped, according to officials.

The latest entry into the annals of bizarre US campground mishaps took place on Saturday at Shaver Lake’s Camp Edison, about 50 miles north-east of downtown Fresno. A spokesperson for the Fresno county sheriff’s office said specialist rescue crews from Cal Fire were required to extricate the unidentified man from the confined tank beneath the waterless, non-flushing toilet.

Sgt Chris Tullus told yourcentralvalley.com, the website of news partners KSEE and KGPE, that a caller at Camp Edison, in the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountains, reported the person tumbling in.

“Via a Spanish translator, they advised that the subject had fallen into the chemical storage tank,” Tullus told the outlet.

Tullus added: “Law enforcement, Camp Edison staff and fire personnel responded and were able to safely get him out, decontaminate him, and he’ll be OK.”

Tullus said the man was not injured – but he did require “a hosing down” from the Cal Fire crew before he walked away.

The incident occurred at about 2.30pm PT, officials said, adding that the person involved was inside the tank for 10 to 15 minutes.

A review of the Camp Edison toilet facilities posted on YouTube more than a decade ago was largely favorable.

“It is located near the day use area,” a description accompanying a video walk-through states. The review adds that the facility “does provide toiletries and electric lighting” and is “very clean and well maintained”.

Tripadvisor reviews of the wider campground, meanwhile, give it a four-star rating out of five.

“Restrooms were easily accessible and sparkling clean with nice hot water,” one camper stated.

Another, however, was not so impressed. “The restrooms were anything but pleasant and there was nowhere to get refreshments,” that person complained.

Saturday’s Camp Edison event has parallels in other recent episodes in which people became stuck in foul territory. In Michigan in 2023, a woman had to be hauled from an outhouse toilet after she fell in trying to retrieve a dropped Apple watch.

A female tourist visiting a meteorite crater near Alice Springs, in Australia’s Northern Territory, spent several hours trapped in waist-deep excrement in April after a long-drop toilet she was using collapsed.

The woman, uninjured except for a few small cuts, and reeking of raw sewage, was literally “in deep shit”, an eyewitness told local news reporters at the time.

As that witness put it: “There’s shit, literal nappies, piss, all in that hole.”