Whakatane, New Zealand (CNN)Geoff Hopkins says he will never forget the cries as the survivors of the White Island volcano eruption were pulled aboard the boat.
Screaming in pain, with skin peeling from their faces and limbs scorched by steam and ash, the survivors were transferred from a dinghy bobbing in the water off the small island.
There was "lots of screaming. Panicked screaming," he says, recalling the injured shouting: "'Get me out of here. I'm burning. I'm burning.'"
The tour boat Hopkins was on had left White Island, off the coast of Whakatane, New Zealand, shortly before the volcano erupted on Monday. Forty-seven people were on the island at the time of the blast. Eight people have so far been confirmed dead.
In the moments immediately after the eruption, the boat's crew made the decision to turn around and help those people left behind.
"We (could) see there's people in the water. There's people swimming off the island," Hopkins, a New Zealand pastor who was on the vessel for a day trip with his daughter Lillani, told CNN.
The 23 people who were brought on board the boat had "horrific burns," he said.
"A lot of people were in shorts, T-shirts, so their faces, their arms, their hands, their legs (were burned)," Hopkins added. "Skin falling off, and hanging from chins. From fingers. From elbows."
The vessel, owned by a company called White Island Tours, was more accustomed to running sightseeing trips than being used as a floating triage center, but as more and more injured people were brought to the boat by dinghies, the crew made a desperate appeal for any doctors on board to come forward.
Hopkins=47...
white island New Zealand=94..47+47
White Island rupted at 2:11 p.m. local time..211/47th prime
New Zealand=105..105/15..47/15th prime
Forty-seven=149/35th prime volcano=35
Geoff Hopkins=193..193/44th prime
eruption=44
White Island=173. 173/40th prime on a day with 40 numerology..12+9+19=40
White Island Tours,=73..73/21st prime...on a day with 21 numerology..12+9=21
sacrifice=73,46..eruption=46
White Island Tours, =91 volcanic eruption=91
bay of plenty=156,41 Thirty three=156,141 on a day with 33 numerology..12+9+2+0+1+9=33
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