Rescuer compares tanker explosion to horror movie

"They were all very, very, very cold. They just wanted some blankets."

Eric Bader, US Coast Guard lieutenant

The ocean reeked of ethanol as Dave Foreman was lowered 22.5m from a Coast Guard helicopter to a life raft carrying Filipino survivors from a tanker that had exploded off of Virginia's coast.

Empty life vests, their rescue strobes still flashing, were scattered on the water, but even with the light the rescue swimmer had trouble making out the figures on the raft.

They were so covered in fuel oil from the tanker not even the whites of their eyes were visible.

"It was something you would see in one of those horror movies, like Swamp Thing," Foreman said on Sunday, a day after he and his Coast Guard crew rescued six men who may be the only survivors of the explosion.

Three crew members died and 18 others were missing after the explosion of the tanker, which was carrying 13.25 million liters of ethanol.

Foreman said he groped about for the survivors, then dragged and pulled them into his rescue basket, struggling to get a good grip on their oil-slicked bodies.

One at a time, the men, all Filipinos, were hoisted to the HH-60 helicopter.

One man, mistakenly thought to have a spinal injury, was tied to a backboard.

A hospital spokeswoman later said there did not turn out to be a spinal injury, but that the men had hypothermia and were contaminated with petroleum.

Three of the men were released from the hospital on Sunday, and the other three were reported in good condition.

The first two rescues went well, but the rest were trickier because the deck of the helicopter had become covered in oil, said Sam Pulliam, the helicopter's flight mechanic.

The air became so thick with oil fumes it was hard to breathe, he said.

"They were all very, very, very cold," Pulliam said.

"They just wanted some blankets," he said.

The survivors declined requests for interviews.

The helicopter's pilot, Lieutenant Eric Bader, said the men may have been reluctant to get into the rescue basket on their own because they were scared or didn't want to leave their shipmates behind.

Pulliam and Foreman were treated at a hospital because they had inhaled fumes and were contaminated with oil.

Pulliam was released after a few hours; Foreman spent the night there but said he couldn't sleep.

"I was basically thinking there were other people out there," Foreman said.

"That's the mentality of a rescue swimmer -- he wants to save everybody," he said.