Jesse Langford's family were killed during the 2019 Whakaari White Island disaster. This is his story.

More than three years ago, Jesse Langford was lying in a Sydney hospital bed when he woke up to the news.

The then-19-year-old had been in a coma for over a week after he was caught in the White Island volcano explosion with his parents, Anthony and Kristine, and his 17-year-old sister, Winona.  

There, in the Royal North Shore Hospital, his grandfather told him he was the only person in his immediate family who had survived.

"He said my dad had died in hospital and my mum had passed away on the island," Jesse recalled in the Netflix documentary The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari. "But they weren't sure where my sister was."

Watch the trailer for The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari. Post continues below. 

A week earlier, the family from North Sydney were on the 12-day cruise, Ovation of the Seas, travelling around New Zealand for Anthony's birthday, when they took a sightseeing day trip to White Island (also known as Whakaari Island). 

That day, on December 9, 2019, they were among 47 people on the volcanic island when erupted just after 2pm. 

"We saw what looked like a black firework or a Dementor from Harry Potter looking shape," Jesse explained in the documentary.  "We all whipped out our phones to take photos."

Then there was a bang.

"A massive even larger group of rocks [started] flying into the air, slowly it began to increase in intensity and size."

Moments later, Jesse heard his tour guide yell, "Run!" 

With his parents on his heels, Jesse began running for his life, as he felt the "shadow of the explosion" rise up behind him.

"Soon it was a black void. All you could hear was rumbling. At that point, there was nothing I could do."

After the explosion, the 19-year-old managed to spot his father to his left, who was struggling with his gas mask.  His mother was "just lying there, not really moving or communicating in any way".  He couldn't see his sister anywhere. 

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Jesse could feel his whole body "tingling".

"Up near the acid lake, I was just sitting there rocking, rocking in pain. My arm's covered in grey ash. I was just thinking 'I'm gonna die here. I'm gonna die. That's gonna be it," he said. 

Around him were half a dozen people who were already "dead or dying".

"In that time you could hear their voices slowly start to dissipate - the screaming becoming less frequent, the crying becoming more quiet."

In the back of his mind, Jesse knew the chance of survival increases if medical assistance is received in the first hour after trauma. But "after sitting there for half an hour, I came to the realisation that no one was coming". 

"Then something clicked, just to get up and go and find some help."

But finding help also meant leaving his parents behind.

"Standing up and walking away from our parents. That was I would say the toughest thing I've ever had to do."

With burns to 90 per cent of his body, Jesse staggered towards the water's edge, remembering the advice his tour guide told him about following the stream of water back down to the beach.  Eventually, he made it to a point where he could see the ocean ahead of him.  That's when he spotted a crew member from the boat. 

"That's it mate, it's time to wrap up," Jesse could hear the tour guide say into his radio.

After hearing the words, Jesse yelled out to him with "whatever energy I had left" and drew his attention.

An Aerial view of White Island in 2016. Image: Phil Yeo/Getty.

"When I flung my arms around his shoulders, I just remember saying 'my family'. All I wanted to do the whole time was to get him to allow me to take him back to where everyone else was."

The crew member told him he would be okay and helped him board a boat to safety. 

A week later, Jesse woke up in hospital on December 17.

Two weeks after that, he watched a live stream of his family's joint funeral from his hospital bed. His family were among 18 people in their tour group who lost their lives. Only three survived. They are also among the 22 people and 14 Australians killed in the disaster. 

This week, Jesse's video interview with police in April 2020 was played to the Auckland District Court where Whakaari-White Island's owners, ID Tours and Tauranga Tourism Services, are accused of safety breaches that resulted in the deaths of 22 people.

Jesse has said he was given no indication of any dangers before going on the trip and had only a short safety briefing on the day with no plans for emergencies.

"I made the decision that I couldn't physically help anyone but I could let people know others had survived ... it still bothers me making that decision to get up and walk away," Jesse said in the pre-recorded video about leaving his parents behind.

The trial so far has heard evidence from five survivors - four tourists and one helicopter pilot. As well as survivors, the trial will hear from a range of technical experts as it progresses. This trial is set down for 16 weeks.

Overall, Jesse has come a long way since the start of his ordeal.

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"Throughout my whole stay in hospital I made a strict point to take progress photos every other day so I can look back at them and see how far I've come," he said in the Netflix documentary. "I'm a stubborn bastard. I refuse to give up I keep trying and trying."

Now, three years and 17 surgeries later, he has graduated from nursing college and has become a mentor for the SHARE Burns Peer Support Program.

Looking back, Jesse credits his family and friends for pushing him to "keep on going", particularly his grandfather who he described as his "rock".

"He's been with me from the very beginning and I would have never been able to make it this far without his love and support."

Read more: 

'A rolling grey ash cloud.' Exactly what it was like at White Island the day it erupted.

Two years ago, Stephanie survived the White Island volcano eruption. Now she can finally remove her mask.

The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari is streaming on Netflix.

With AAP.

This post was originally published in December 2022, and has been updated with new information.

Feature Image: Netflix.