Warning: This article contains content some readers may find upsetting
The photographer behind the tragic image of a young girl trapped in a volcanic mudflow shared the ‘heartbreaking question’ she asked him.
In 1985, Frank Fournier travelled to Columbia where the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz had caused huge disruption to the local community. Among the 29,000 residents in the town of Armero, around 20,000 were killed.
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Many survived the initial eruption but were caught in the mudslide or trapped in debris. The photographer met a farmer who took him to the young girl ‘who needed help’.
“He took me to her, she was almost on her own at the time, just a few people around and some rescuers helping someone else a bit further away,” he explained to the BBC two decades later.
Fournier’s image of the girl is particularly haunting as her tired, black eyes have become synonymous with the tragedy.
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And he said when he got to the 13-year-old, ‘she was in a large puddle’ and had been there for nearly three days. The Frenchman said she was ‘trapped from the waist down by concrete and other debris from the collapsed houses’
“Dawn was just breaking and the poor girl was in pain and very confused,” he added.
Her name was Omayra Sánchez Garzón and multiple rescue efforts were made to get her out and in the end, those who tried to save her could do little but comfort her.
Heartbreakingly Fournier said: “When I took the pictures I felt totally powerless in front of this little girl, who was facing death with courage and dignity. She could sense that her life was going.”
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The photographer said he felt a duty to report on ‘what this little girl had to go through’, and that by this point, Omayra was ‘drifting in and out of consciousness’ as she made a sad request.
“She even asked me if I could take her to school because she was worried that she would be late,” Fournier recalled.
About three hours after he got there, the young girl sadly died. He explained how afterwards people would ask him: “When I took the pictures I felt totally powerless in front of this little girl, who was facing death with courage and dignity. She could sense that her life was going.” But he explained ‘it was impossible’.
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"People still find the picture disturbing. This highlights the lasting power of this little girl. I was lucky that I could act as a bridge to link people with her. It's the magic of the thing,” he added.
Jess Battison