A staff member recounted the Whakaari/White Island eruption, describing the horror as skin 'melted'. Photo / Allessandro Kauffman
By Victor Waters of RNZ
A member of staff on the day of the Whakaari/White Island disaster recounted the horror of people scrambling for shelter as the volcano erupted without warning, “melting” their skin as they hid.
The testimony was shared at a coronial inquest into the disaster which killed 22 people and seriously injured 25 others on December 9, 2019.
The witness’ evidence heard on Monday was recorded about six months after the eruption.
The person, who cannot be identified, said that everything appeared normal on arrival to Whakaari/White Island.
“It all looked fine,” the survivor said.
They said they were walking down the middle of the island towards the streams when the eruption happened without warning.
“There was no rumbling or shaking or anything,” they said.
“I remember looking up and seeing the plume over White Island and it was basically black and white and it was taller than the island when we saw it, so we never heard it.”
The survivor said their first thoughts were that the eruption looked beautiful against the blue sky, but those thoughts quickly turned to the need to run.
“It just all of a sudden was all go... I remember yelling at everyone to run.”
They said they thought at first they could outrun it but then realised they could not.
They reacted by running towards large boulders that were nearby as hot debris spewing from the volcano approached rapidly.
They said as they hid behind a mound of boulders, they recounted seeing panic as others scrambled for shelter.
“And then that’s when I saw the pyroclastic flow coming down.
“I remember putting on and holding my gas mask and my sunglasses to my face, basically shielding my face and then the pyroclastic flow came over us.
“That was probably only a few seconds, but it felt like minutes.”
According to the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS Science), pyroclastic flows are the most destructive hazard associated with volcanic activity.
They are formed when an eruption column, or parts of a lava dome, collapses, causing volcanic debris to landslide off the volcano at speed across the land in an outwardly expanding cloud of ash, rock and volcanic gas.
Volcanologist Shane Cronin, who gave evidence last week at the inquiry, said some particles in the cloud were over 400C, with the average temperature sitting around 200C.
The witness testimony from Monday said there was an eerie silence in the moments after the pyroclastic flow passed.
“Once it had all sort of stopped and gone quiet, I got up and realised that my hands looked like they were melting.”
They said this made them realise they’d have difficulty physically assisting other survivors.
At that point, they said they “assumed someone would come and help us, which unfortunately no one did”.
The witness recounted how people re-grouped and headed towards the wharf.
Once they arrived, the survivors attracted the attention of a nearby tour boat, The Phoenix, which was covered in volcanic ash, causing further delay as the hot debris needed to be removed from the boat.
Other survivors at that time, who hid in the ocean, were also rescued and brought onboard.
“I just basically tucked and rolled into the boat, because we were melting, and so I didn’t want to touch anything,” the witness said.
“The Coast Guard boat, I think it was, dropped two paramedics on to The Phoenix to help us, and they were like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to find out what to do, where to start, sort of thing.”
The member of staff on the day recounted how the paramedics did what they could with little gear they had available before arriving on the mainland and being taken to hospital.
The staff member was later asked in the interview if there was anything they could think of that would have helped prevent the loss of life that day.
“Actually having a rescue party come to help,” they replied.
“Because we had no one and I firmly believe that some lives would have been saved and limbs would have been saved if someone had actually come to help us,” they said.
“It just seems pointless having a military, and an Air Force, and an SAS if they’re not even getting used to help their own citizens when they need them.
“I’m just really, really disappointed that no one came to help us.
“I truly believe that people died because of it.”
Later in the day, a sea operations manager working on the day of the Whakaari/White Island tragedy told the inquest what it was like moments after the eruption.
The witness also cannot be identified because of suppression orders.
They said the pyroclastic flow had engulfed much of the island, and the shore wasn’t visible until a few minutes after the eruption.
The sea operations manager said no people on the island were visible at that stage, with conditions “very, very misty” as a result of the volcanic ash.
The first signs of life the witness saw were people in the sea, one of them holding on to rocks near the wharf.
The member of staff was in the midst of rescuing people in the water on an inflatable boat, when they described seeing the first group of survivors descending down the volcano towards the wharf.
“It was a matter of getting the people out of the water first, that was priority and then attending to who was at the jetty,” the sea operations manager said.
These survivors were then taken from the inflatable boat to a larger vessel called The Phoenix and taken to the mainland to be treated for their injuries.
The sea operations manager said they returned to the island several times in search of more survivors.
“I just wanted to clear my head on really the numbers. I hadn’t left anybody on the rocks or anything, because there were people scattered.
“If you can imagine, they were covered in ash and they could have been sitting on a rock and looked like a rock. It was that sort of description.”
The coronial inquest in Auckland aims to re-establish the facts of the case and make findings and recommendations to prevent similar disasters.
- RNZ