LogFAQs > #931463090

Stories from some survivors/rescuers:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/11/asia/new-zealand-volcano-eruption-survivor-intl-hnk/index.html

Geoff Hopkins says he will never forget the cries as the survivors of the White Island volcano eruption were pulled aboard the boat.
Screaming in pain, with skin peeling from their faces and limbs scorched by steam and ash, the survivors were transferred from a dinghy bobbing in the water off the small island.
There was "lots of screaming. Panicked screaming," he says, recalling the injured shouting: "'Get me out of here. I'm burning. I'm burning.'"

In the moments immediately after the eruption, the boat's crew made the decision to turn around and help those people left behind.

"We (could) see there's people in the water. There's people swimming off the island," Hopkins, a New Zealand pastor who was on the vessel for a day trip with his daughter Lillani, told CNN.
The 23 people who were brought on board the boat had "horrific burns," he said.
"A lot of people were in shorts, T-shirts, so their faces, their arms, their hands, their legs (were burned)," Hopkins added. "Skin falling off, and hanging from chins. From fingers. From elbows."

He recalled one crew member's expression: "The look of horror on her face as she said, 'We need all the help we can get.'"
As the pair turned from tourists to first responders, he said they focused on those who were most seriously injured.
Of all the people that Hopkins helped, he says one couple has stuck in his mind the most.

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