Angry Beaver: COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL 4 years ago • Report 0 Sir Loin: Whakaari Volcano (White Island) erupted about 2pm today. Apparently about 50 people were inside the crater at the time. 20 seriously injured and an unknown number missing. Sir Loin: so far the death toll is 5. Thankfully many of the missing have been found and taken to hospital suffering from burns. The question remains; why were tourists allowed onto the island when the volcanic alert level was raised? It is not just their lives that are endangered but the rescue personnel too. The rescuers had to climb down into an erupting crater to lift injured people out then load them onto helicopters which had flown in through clouds of red hot ash or onto privately owned boats which were sailed out from the mainland in similar conditions. Why do people not consider the danger they put rescue personnel into when they do these stupid bloody things? I am a member of the Alpine Rescue team and a number of times have been called in to evacuate tourists from high altitude during storms with sub zero temps and hurricane force winds. I was desperately hoping we would not be asked to abseil into the crater this time to evacuate people. BankaiNZ: Sad that people passed, I don’t get human mentality at times, can’t be on the beach swimming unless you’re between the flags but sure let’s get airdropped into an active volcano Sir Loin: 6 bodies recovered today in extremely dangerous conditions. A team of bomb disposal soldiers in hazmat suits climbed into the crater which is still erupting. They searched for a while but unable to find the last 2. It's possible they have sheltered in the sea so dive teams are searching the coastline. |