A Whakaari/White Island eruption survivor, who received burns to 53 percent of his body, has recalled the moment a cloud of ash and toxic gas covered him causing excruciating pain.
US newlywed Matthew Urey and his wife Lauren were on White Island at the time of the eruption and suffered serious injuries.
Forty-seven people were on the island when it erupted on December 9, 2019, with 22 dying from extreme burns and blast injuries.
Urey was a cruise-ship passenger - on his honeymoon - when he joined a group trip to the island.
He's travelled to New Zealand to give evidence in the WorkSafe trial against six parties involved in the operations. He appeared in the Auckland District Court on Wednesday morning, where he revealed the extent of his injuries.
Urey told WorkSafe prosecutor Kristy McDonald KC he suffered burns to 53 percent of his body.
The worst was to the lower parts of his arms and legs, face and neck - where his skin was not covered by clothes. He added his lower back also got burnt, where his shirt rode up.
Urey revealed the group didn't receive a safety briefing until they were on the island and he didn't have any idea of the chances of there being an eruption.
They were told the island was on level two - but he had no idea what that meant. He assumed there could be a level 5 or 10 before an eruption, Urey told the court.
"Never in my wildest dreams would I have gone on that island if I knew [an] eruption was level 3," he said.
He was given a gas mask and a hard hat and was wearing his own sunglasses, which he believed helped save his eyes.
'I remember feeling my flesh burning'
Urey also described the moment the eruption happened and how he and his wife took shelter behind a rock and "rode it out".
"I remember feeling my flesh burning and yelling out at one point, just in pain," he said. "I remember screaming out when it was burning my skin and I couldn't see when it was finished."
He said the eruption "felt like hours" and he "couldn't breathe".
"I checked as soon as the cloud cleared to make sure my wife was OK," an emotional Urey said.
"Once I knew she was OK, I stood up and grabbed her and we started again, we couldn't run anymore. She fell at one point and burned the palm of her right hand."
During his court appearance, video evidence recorded on January 24, 2020, while he was in the hospital was played.
Urey, who was heavily bandaged, described how a driver of a rubber boat was grabbing people out of the water.
"There were probably 15-20 or more of us standing at the dock waiting to get off. He picked up those people first, went out to the boat, loaded them on and then came back... and we were in the second group, both me and my wife," he said.
"I had to help her down because again, her hand was badly burned and then I got in shortly after."
Once he got on the boat, Urey said people onboard helped as best as they could on the journey, which took about an hour and a half to get back to the mainland.
He also described the moment the volcano erupted and the scramble to get back to the boat.
"Somebody in our group, I don't remember who shouted look and we saw the huge plume coming up... and I remember saying, not today and then just said run," Urey said.
"We took off running back towards the boats... we couldn't run anymore because the ashes were so thick, but walked as fast as we could back towards the boat. She fell at one point and burned the palm of her right hand.
"I helped her get back up and we got to the dock and from there it was kind of chaos at that point."
The trial continues.
