Jessica Dunn with a computer image of the boat she and three others were on when it exploded at the Pukete Ramp in Hamilton on the Waikato River. Photo / Paul Estcourt
A young woman caught in a fireball explosion on a boat told last night of how she leapt to safety from the burning flames.
North Shore resident Jessica Dunn, 21, escaped with minor injuries following Wednesday's accident on the Waikato River near the Pukete boat ramp.
Ms Dunn
and three others had set off to go wakeboarding when the boat suddenly went up in flames. "We'd been wakeboarding the day before and everything was fine and then when we launched we got about 40m.
"All of a sudden there was a huge bang and then the front of the boat exploded in front of me and the engine exploded behind ... then it all engulfed in flames so we were quite lucky really ... everything exploded. There was debris everywhere and all our gear flew everywhere," said Ms Dunn, of Brown's Bay.
Jessica was sitting in the front with Adrian Pooley, 29, who was driving. Her boyfriend Duncan Skipper, 27, and a friend called Matt were in the back. "Duncan and Matt were thrown into the water ... I was sitting in the front next to the driver and we weren't thrown from the boat ... but we jumped out."
Mr Skipper and his friend suffered minor injuries and Mr Pooley got a large burn to his leg and a singed eye.
Ms Dunn suffered minor burns and singed eyebrows, eyelashes and hair. "My hair is frizzled and I had to get my hair cut [yesterday] and one side of my eyelashes are all gone and my eyebrows are a total mess."
All four were treated at Waikato Hospital. "We went back [to the scene] after we were discharged from hospital and the only thing we could recover ... was a spanner."
She said there had been incorrect reports that somebody had been tinkering with the engine before the explosion. She said there was 100 litres of gas in the boat. "We were just swimming away as fast as we could ... the fire people couldn't believe we got out of it all right. That's our nine lives for the year."
She said Mr Skipper and Mr Pooley had owned the boat for four years and had insurance. The group lost their wakeboards and other gear.
But the ordeal hasn't put Ms Dunn off boats or wakeboarding. "It's just made me think about safety a bit more."
