the famous body casts you see in photos aren't actual remains, they're plaster poured into the voids left in the hardened ash where bodies decomposed, a technique from the 1800s.
aditya_rao this needs way more upvotes
nicole_grant yep can confirm, read about this somewhere too
thousands died from the pyroclastic flow and ash, but a good number did escape before the worst of it hit, since the eruption happened over about two days.