Video: Faces of the Canterbury earthquake

They are the human faces of the Canterbury earthquake.
 
The local fireman who kept on working even though his own home had been terribly damaged.

"You live in the community, you know the people. Of course the other thing is that all the fire fighters have their own houses and a couple of those are going to be write-offs.

"They take the time to come here first and deal with all the problems of others and then they start to look at their own problems later."

- Dave Ham, Kaiapoi deputy fire chief

The publican with tears in his eyes and he spoke of his hope the historic hotel where he lived could perhaps be saved.

"It's the backbone of Diamond Harbour and we've already lost so many other beautiful buildings.

"There are other places which are obviously taking priority because it's so devastating in town but this is also devastating for a small community.

"I just want to wrap my arms around the place and protect it."

– Richard Hores, custodian of Godley House, Diamond Harbour.

The woman who fled her house in the darkness and trudged through deep mud to help a screaming neighbour.
 
"The room just swung backwards and forwards.

"I couldn’t walk because it was so violent but I crawled to the back door.

"I went to the letterbox to try and help because my neighbour was screaming, that’s when I saw the toilet paper float past me and I knew it was sewage."

– Noreen Andrews, Seabreeze Close, Bexley.
 
The small children who can no longer sleep alone because they fear the next shake.
 
"Well I was having a dream that there was going to be something weird then mum came running in screaming 'earthquake, earthquake' and I still thought it was part of my dream and then we stood under the door and waited for it to finish.

“I’m just being really scared of every sound and jumping at everything and just waiting for the next aftershock to come."

– Olivia, 11, Christchurch.

- © Fairfax NZ News