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Twelve months ago, emergency services came together as a single unit to help those caught in the Whakaari eruption. They share some of their stories from that fateful day.
An emergency call shortly after 2.11pm changed everything.
“There has been a volcanic eruption on White Island. There are about 100 people there. Several are seriously injured and there are deceased patients ”.
St John’s Deputy Director, Dr. Craig Ellis, got the call and immediately thought it was a joke or an exercise. At least he wished it were.
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As if anticipating this natural assumption, the caller said, “This is not a joke or an exercise.”
Over the next six hours he would receive 200 phone calls. One every thirty seconds as he ran to accommodate the dozens of injured patients who would soon arrive.
Bay of Plenty District Superintendent Andy McGregor was standing at an airport about to board a plane when he received word of the eruption. The priority was figuring out the numbers.
DOMINICO ZAPATA / THINGS / Things
Bay of Plenty Superintendent Andy McGregor received word of the Whakaari eruption while boarding a plane.
“We sent a sergeant to White Island Tours to get more information,” he said.
“From that, we learned that there were two boats full of people and a helicopter.”
He was faced with the task of leading a rescue effort, initially remotely, from a remote island 40 kilometers off the coast.
Kahu NZ helicopter pilot Mark Law saw the eruption from the skies and prepared to come out to help. He was one of the first to land on the island to offer first aid.
“I found all the people on the island, so we checked them, performed first aid and assistance, and responded by radio.
Whakatane Hospital was preparing for a swarm of severely burned patients.
Casualties start to land as more help arrives
Those who could on the island had rushed back to the boats. They were burned and in shock and began the long journey back.
“That boat trip was agony,” said one survivor. On board, all the help that people could offer was provided by staff and passengers, even if it just meant singing while people died.
Ellis was working to coordinate what was, outside of the Christchurch earthquake, New Zealand’s largest mass casualty event in decades.
Kahu’s Mark Law helicopters were among the first to respond to Whakaari after the eruption.
“The patients had been trapped in a pyroclastic cloud,” he said. “Hot gas. Hot chemicals. The sand particles under pressure had hit the patients. The patients had burns to the skin and respiratory tract. There were a multitude of traumatic injury injuries where people had been thrown or hit by rocks. “
Whakatane Hospital was not equipped to handle such a load of patients. Air power was the answer. Ellis directed air ambulances and helicopters to Whakatane. This allowed resources to be introduced while providing air transport in the opposite direction.
McGregor was also receiving updates while traveling.
“The first victims started arriving at 4 in the afternoon by boat,” he said.
Not for distribution
Ash covers Whakaari / White Island after the eruption.
Whakatane Volunteer Fire Brigade Chief Ken Clark and his charges were at the docks for additional manpower.
“I don’t think people realized how bad people were,” he said.
“The severity of those burns. When you saw it, you became holy. In 49 years as a firefighter, I have never seen anything like it. ”
Ellis continued to transport patients to burn units, metropolitan hospitals and anywhere that had space, as news that there were no more survivors on the island leaked to McGregor.
He called it.
Now it was a recovery mission.
The Navy arrives and the recovery begins
HMNZS Wellington Captain Tim Hall was dispatched to Whakaari to help. The ship’s specialized equipment and radar would come in handy for days to come.
Scientific experts joined a special planning team to achieve a safe recovery.
Defense / Supplied
HMNZS Captain Tim Hall meets Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern while at Whakaari
Hall remembers collaboration between all agencies as key to the success of the mission.
“Reading the plan, I was impressed by how good it was,” he said.
“There were clear elements of going or not going. All of them had to be attended to and then reported to the command elements on the ground before the green light was given ”.
It was outside the usual realm of health and safety. Defense Force Chief Air Marshal Kevin Short had to sign a waiver to circumvent the Health and Safety Act given the danger on the December 13 mission.
“Everything was surreal that day,” Hall said.
Even the weather. I was so still. The ash from the volcano hung differently than it was before. ”
Hall said the training shone through the mission.
“There was a lot of adaptation and improvement thinking going on on the ground,” he said.
“We would receive (information) from the ground crew that they have encountered problems and this is what they planned to do about it.”
ALEXANDER KAUFFMANN
Tourist Allessandro Kauffmann was on a boat leaving Whakaari / White Island when it exploded, and he captured this on video.
A wave of relief washed over the crew when the mission was completed.
“There was a release from the weight of what they just did,” he said.
“Now we had to give them [victims] back to the family. “
However, it is unknown that two bodies were washed out to sea by a deluge before the mission could be launched.
McGregor sent the dive team to search for the body of tourist Winona Langford and White Island tour guide Hayden Marshall-Inman.
Drama Guardian
Hayden’s brother was working at the Top 10 Holiday Park when he heard the news that the volcano had erupted on December 9, 2019.
“I just remember saying everything will be fine since Hayden was there,” Mark Inman said.
“It took us a bit to finance [he was unaccounted for]. It was supposed to be his day off. ”
Divers saw a body in the water. It was believed to be Hayden’s, but it was lost in the transfer between the Navy and Police and sank below the surface.
Things
Mark Inman organized a charity golf tournament in honor of his late brother who died in Whakaari.
“They [the divers] they were very upset, “McGregor said. “They wanted the best for themselves.”
Twelve months later and Inman is holistic in the fact that his brother never recovered.
“We never really achieved closure without a body,” he said. “Deep down, you know that’s where Hayden wanted to be while Winona was still out there. He wouldn’t have wanted to leave her alone. It’s bittersweet, but it’s good that someone else is out there. ”
Twelve months later
With a coroner’s investigation underway, there is still much that rescue teams cannot discuss as the investigation continues.
McGregor says the biggest regret from his time at the helm at Whakaari was not being able to return Winona and Hayden to their families.
Ellis says he is pleased with the efforts St John put into rescue and recovery efforts in an unprecedented event and how the emergency services worked together.
Hall said the mission was a reminder to trust training. “We do a good job on things. You don’t have to worry about not being good enough simply because people are paying attention. Back yourself up. There is a reason you are there. “
At the local level, the eruption and the rescue took their toll. Clark says there is reluctance to talk about that day in town.
“Sometimes I think the less I hear about this, the better I will be,” he said.
Rosa Woods / Stuff
Tributes to the victims of the White Island tragedy on the Whakatāne waterfront last year.
Law’s business was decimated on the day of the eruption, as he had “all his eggs in one basket”, as did many tour operators flying to Whakaari.
“Eighty percent of my business went away overnight.”
As one of the few people to land on the island that day, Law is often contacted by people who lost their family in the eruption, who are now seeking closure.
“It was on the ground,” he said. “I flew, landed and went and saw everyone’s state.”
Says people have questions. Normal questions about your loved ones that you saw that day. Occasionally, these requests are facilitated from the foreign media that write about the event.
“They want to know how they were,” he said. “Were their faces okay? I always have time to answer questions from families. ”
