March 21, 2014 at 7:51 AM

The Associated Press

SEATTLE — Firefighters rescued a man who fell into a tank of sewage at the treatment plant on Puget Sound in Seattle’s Discovery Park.

Department spokesman Kyle Moore says firefighters responded to a 911 call Thursday evening and had to remove a grate to pull out the 23-year-old man.

KOMO reports he told firefighters that he had taken drugs and gone for a walk with his girlfriend on the beach. As they were walking he saw the tank, decided to climb it and somehow fell in.

Firefighters worried the girlfriend also might have fallen into the sewage, but she was found OK walking on the beach.

Firefighters and sewage-plant workers decontaminated the man. He also was checked at a hospital.