VOLCANO SURVIVOR: ‘WE HAD TO GO BACK TO HELP’
LILLANI ESCAPED THE ERUPTION BUT HELPED RESCUE THOSE WHO WEREN’T SO LUCKY
It had been a morning of realising dreams for Lillani Hopkins. The 22-year-old geography student had been studying volcanoes for the past five years and wandering around New Zealand’s Whakaari/white Island, home to the volcano, it had been a thrill to experience one first hand.
“Apparently it was more steamy than usual,” Lillani, from Hamilton, NZ, tells New Idea exclusively. “And the lake, which was usually blue was white, [and] covered in ash. But nobody seemed alarmed.”
After a morning of adventure, her tour group clambered onto a boat to travel home. Lillani and her father, Geoff, didn’t know it then, but the pair were lucky to have escaped with their lives.
As they drew away from the island, which attracts 10,000 tourists a year, a plume of smoke began pouring from the volcanic crater.
“Someone on our boat gasped and people started screaming ‘look’,” Lillani remembers of the terrifying moments. “I turned and there was a pale grey ash cloud spurting up about 200 metres. I grabbed my camera and within seconds it had turned to a sinister black and it was travelling very fast, rolling over the island.”
Incredibly, Lillani and those around her were witnessing the eruption of Whakaari volcano for the first time in 18 years. And while they were a safe distance away, horrifically there were 47 tourists, including 24 Australians, in the middle of the danger.
“The crew turned the boat around to go back to the island. We could see people on the shore and in the water,” Lillani remembers. “They launched the dinghy and started dragging people on. Dad and I have a first-aid certificate so us and two doctors on board rushed to help.”
But none of the training they’d had could prepare the foursome for the injuries they were confronted with. Horrific burns from head to toe, bleeding head injuries, people on the brink of consciousness.
“It was very confronting,” Lillani says. “But there was no time for thinking. We didn’t have supplies so we had to do what we could with what we had.”
The four newly appointed
medics, one who couldn’t speak English, assessed their patients dealing with the most severe first.
“We cut off clothes, covered burns with fresh water, stopped any bleeding and put the unconscious in the recovery position,” Lillani says. “Some had burnt tongues and mouths full of ash so we were rinsing them. Everyone was helping in any way they could, providing a chain of fresh water to us and asking what we needed. People were walking around in their bras. Every piece of spare clothing was being used to shield the patients from the sun and salt spray.”
After 30 minutes the crew were satisfied they had rescued anyone still alive on the island and what followed was a torturous 90 minute journey back to Auckland with victims in horrendous pain.
“When we got to land there were so many ambulances and fire trucks. Some of the police thought it was a drill until they saw us all,” Lillani says.
The 20 victims were transported straight to hospitals around New Zealand.
Lillani is not sure if any of her patients are among the now reported deceased.
As New Idea went to press the toll stood at eight people confirmed dead, 10 missing, presumed dead and 25 in a critical condition in hospital. Some are so badly burnt they cannot speak or even be identified.
A Brisbane mother, Julie Richards, 47, and her daughter, Jessica, 20, were the first two Australians to be named as having died in the disaster after days of uncertainty over their whereabouts.
Family spokesperson John Mickel told the media the family was “united in grief ” for the pair who, like the majority of the victims, had been part of a day tour to the island from the cruise ship Ovation of the Seas. “For this family, [the festive season] will be one of deep poignancy,” he said.
Families from around the world have raced to New Zealand
“WE CUT OFF CLOTHES, COVERED BURNS WITH FRESH WATER, STOPPED ANY BLEEDING”
in the scramble to locate and identify the victims, a job made extremely difficult given the extent of their injuries.
“It’s been pretty horrific,” Duncan Parker tells New Idea. His cousin Lauren Urey was on honeymoon with her new husband, Matthew. The American couple were on the island when it went up and they were treated by Lillani’s father on the boat. Lauren has burns to around 20 per cent of her body while Matt has suffered burns to 80 per cent of his body. “Right now the family is with Lauren,” Duncan says. “Doctors met our family at the airport and took them straight to the hospital.”
As the tragedy unfolds, families are looking for someone to take responsibility.
Monash University Emeritus Professor Ray Cas has subsequently called White Island “a disaster waiting to happen for many years”. A health and safety investigation has been launched and a criminal inquiry has also not been ruled out.
For Lillani and her father it’s a case of trying to process the trauma of the past week. And she says the smell of sulphur and ash which still lingers on her hands is a constant reminder of the fate she dodged.
“It didn’t hit me until I got home about 9pm that it could have been us,” Lillani says. “My mum could have lost both of us.
“I sat in silence for a long time. There were no words.”