The Whakaari White Island Eruption
Tracks
Gold Coast Ballroom
Coolangatta Room
Southport Room 1
Southport Room 2
Southport Room 3
| Tuesday, July 28, 2026 |
| 9:15 AM - 10:15 AM |
| Gold Coast Room |
Overview
Dr Tony Smith, Deputy Clinical Director, Hato Hone St John
Details
Three Key Learnings
1. The challenges with triage, treatment, and transport of multiple severely burned patients.
2. The key differences between thermal burns and volcanic burns.
3. The importance of pro-actively looking after mental health of yourself and your colleagues.
Speaker
Dr Tony Smith
Deputy Clinical Director
Hato Hone St John
The Whakaari White Island Eruption
Abstract
Whakaari White Island is an active volcano approximately fifty kilometres off the coast of the North Island of New Zealand. On the 9th of December 2019, forty seven people were injured when it erupted. All had severe burns and most were critically injured. Twenty two people sadly died, approximately half of those in the first 1-4 hours.
Dr Tony Smith is one of the Deputy Medical Directors for Hato Hone St John in New Zealand. He was among the first of many responders and clinical personnel involved in the emergency response. It was the most challenging major incident he has been involved in, and it completely overwhelmed the emergency services, the local hospital, and the burn centres across New Zealand.
Tony will talk about the challenges of triage, treatment, and transport with so many critically injured patients being a long way from the hospitals they needed to go to. He will also talk about the significant impact the incident had on his mental health, and the importance of peer support and being pro-active about the mental health of responders and personnel, following a major incident.
Dr Tony Smith is one of the Deputy Medical Directors for Hato Hone St John in New Zealand. He was among the first of many responders and clinical personnel involved in the emergency response. It was the most challenging major incident he has been involved in, and it completely overwhelmed the emergency services, the local hospital, and the burn centres across New Zealand.
Tony will talk about the challenges of triage, treatment, and transport with so many critically injured patients being a long way from the hospitals they needed to go to. He will also talk about the significant impact the incident had on his mental health, and the importance of peer support and being pro-active about the mental health of responders and personnel, following a major incident.
Biography
Dr Tony Smith is one of the Deputy Medical Directors for Hato Hone St John in New Zealand. He is also an Intensive Care Medicine Specialist at Auckland City Hospital and is a Pre-hospital and Retrieval Medicine doctor with the Northern Rescue Helicopter Service. He has had, what he thinks is more than his fair share of exposure to major incidents, including the Christchurch earthquake in 2011, the terrorist mass shootings at mosques in 2019, and the Whakaari White Island eruption in 2019.
