Aerial photographs present how volcano lava stopped simply yards away from home

Astonishing aerial photographs present how one fortunate home-owner escaped an costly catastrophe after scorching lava from Iceland’s volcanic eruption stopped simply yards away from their home.

The molten lava surged in the direction of the city of Grindavik and engulfed a number of properties on Sunday after the volcano on the Rekyjanes peninsula erupted for the second time in lower than a month.

But for one home-owner, they’ll breathe a sigh of aid after aerial photographs confirmed how the scorching lava had reached the fence surrounding the property earlier than solidifying and leaving the property unscathed.  

They may have watched in horror because the molten lava had incinerated the properties subsequent door, pondering that their residence could be subsequent. But by some stroke of luck, the molten rock stopped simply yards away from the property.

It comes because the determined hunt for a person who plunged down a fissure opened by the volcano continued at this time after Iceland’s president stated the nation is battling ‘super forces of nature’.

Dismayed residents of Grindavik, who have been all evacuated from the fishing city earlier than the second eruption started yesterday morning, have needed to watch from afar because the scorching lava engulfed a number of of their properties. 

Harrowing footage from at this time confirmed the destroyed stays of homes that have been incinerated by the flames, with some being fully flattened and lined by the now black lava rock. 

It comes as dramatic footage confirmed the scorching lava surging in the direction of development employees and their automobiles as they desperately tried to construct a defensive wall to guard Grindavik from the molten rock.  

Brave workmen had raced to the sting of the lava circulate to save lots of their work machines that have been getting used to construct defensive limitations round Grindavik after the volcano erupted on Sunday. 

Nail-biting footage reveals the development employees working in opposition to the clock to evacuate from the realm and save the machines with the scorching lava seen simply yards away as they transfer as rapidly because the gradual excavators and bulldozers will enable. 

The video, filmed by a employee inside an excavator, reveals a bulldozer barrelling in the direction of the street as flames lick the precise facet of the street and flaming molten lava seen within the wing mirror. Foreman Ármann Jón Garðarsson stated nobody was harm within the dramatic evacuation effort and all automobiles have been saved.

Despite the workmen’s finest efforts to construct a defensive barrier across the city, the molten rock streamed in the direction of properties within the northernmost tip of the city and incinerated them inside minutes. 

‘This is critical, it is mainly as dangerous as it might probably presumably get. Although it would get even worse, who is aware of,’ evacuated resident Jon Gauti Dagbjartsson stated on Sunday. 

‘I truly stay in the home that I used to be born in and it is a powerful thought to suppose that this city is perhaps over, and I must begin throughout some place else. But if that is the case, then that is precisely what we’ll do,’ he stated.

President Gudni Th. Johannesson stated in a televised addressed late Sunday that ‘a frightening interval of upheaval has begun on the Reykjanes peninsula’ after the dormant volcanic system woke up after virtually 800 years. 

It comes as lots of of individuals have been trying to find the workman since Wednesday after he fell by means of a crevasse he had been attempting to fill in. The workman was being lowered into the crack, which is round 10 metres deep, when he fell. 

Rescue efforts have been hampered by the circumstances and the truth that the small hole can solely match two individuals on the time to search for him. And the circumstances worsened on Sunday when the volcano erupted a second time. 

In the hours earlier than the volcano erupted on Sunday morning, authorities had ordered residents to go away the fishing city of Grindavik as a swarm of small earthquakes indicated an imminent eruption.

Geophysicist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson stated on Monday morning that the eruption had ‘decreased significantly’ in a single day, however that it was unimaginable to say when it could finish.

Grindavik, a city of three,800 individuals about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of the capital, Reykjavik, was beforehand evacuated in November when the Svartsengi volcanic system woke up after virtually 800 years.

The volcano ultimately erupted on Dec. 18, sending lava flowing away from Grindavik. Residents have been allowed to return to their properties on Dec. 22.

Since then, emergency employees have been constructing defensive partitions which have stopped a lot of the lava circulate from the brand new eruption wanting the city.

But these defensive partitions have been no match for the lava circulate on Sunday morning, with the molten rock flowing in the direction of properties and incinerating them. 

‘According to the primary photographs from the Coast Guard’s surveillance flight, a crack has opened on each side of the defenses which have begun to be constructed north of Grindavík,’ the Icelandic Meteorological Office stated in an announcement. 

Molten lava flows reached the outskirts of Grindavik round midday on Sunday, setting three homes alight, though the city was evacuated earlier and there was no instant hazard to individuals.

‘In just a little village like this one, we’re like a household, everyone knows one another as household – it is tragic seeing this,’ native resident Sveinn Ari Gudjonsson stated. ‘It’s unreal, it is like watching a movie,’ added the 55-year-old, who works within the fishing business.

No one has been killed within the eruptions, however a workman is lacking after reportedly falling right into a crack opened by the volcano.

‘We do not but know the way this eruption will unfold, however we should nonetheless take these actions which might be inside our energy,’ the president stated.

‘We proceed to hope for pretty much as good an consequence as doable, within the face of those super forces of nature,’ he added. ‘We will keep on with our duties and we’ll proceed to face collectively.’

Video taken from an Icelandic Coastguard helicopter reveals big swimming pools of molten rock and a wall of flames rising into the evening sky.

Víðir Reynisson, chief supervisor of the Office of the National Commissioner of the Police, instructed native media that ‘nobody goes into Grindavíkuntil we’re completely certain that it will likely be OK.’

Live video footage on Monday confirmed glimpses of orange lava nonetheless flowing to the floor however at smaller volumes, and additional away from the city.

Geologists on Sunday stated magma corridors have been believed to be flowing beneath the deserted city, nonetheless, posing continued danger.

‘Unfortunately (the lava) went just a little bit extra south than we had hoped for,’ the pinnacle of Iceland’s Civil Protection and Emergency Management, Vidir Reynisson, instructed a press convention late on Sunday.

Flights to and from the nation weren’t affected as of Sunday, and Iceland Air confirmed that the operations of Keflavík Airport weren’t impacted.

But devastating lava flows razed a number of properties in Grindavík, in accordance with native media, with the potential for extra destruction looming forward.

Lovísa Mjöll Guðmundsdóttir, a pure catastrophe professional on the Icelandic Meteorological Office, stated: ‘It can’t be dominated out that extra cracks will open.

‘The GPS information confirmed us that there’s elevated magma influx into the tunnel and with that there’s a risk of extra fissures opening up.’

Police chief Víðir Reynisson, citing the Icelandic Met Office, warned that ‘there isn’t a finish to magma influx into the tunnel, and in consequence we must be ready and focus our actions on the actual hazard, a big crack opening in Grindavík, main fuel air pollution from this after which the doable opening of recent eruptions.’ 

The Icelandic authorities will meet on Monday to resolve on help for the individuals of Grindavik.

‘We have to put loads of additional efforts into discovering extra housing, appropriate housing,’ Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir stated.

Iceland, which sits above a volcanic scorching spot within the North Atlantic, averages one eruption each 4 to 5 years. The most disruptive in current instances was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed clouds of ash into the ambiance and disrupted trans-Atlantic air journey for months.

The newest eruption is not anticipated to launch massive quantities of ash into the air. Operations at Keflavík Airport are persevering with as regular, stated Gudjon Helgason, spokesman for airport operator Isavia.

Residents of Grindavík have been evacuated round 3am native time on Sunday as seismic exercise continued to accentuate.

The Public Safety Department of the National Police reported that 200 earthquakes have been recorded in a single day, with Grindavík dropping energy at round 5am.

But by Sunday evening, eruption within the fissure had largely subsided.

‘It appears to us that it has virtually stopped, the lava circulate by these homes,’ stated Böðvar Sveinsson, a pure catastrophe professional on the Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, one in every of Iceland’s largest vacationer sights, shuttered after reopening only one week prior.

On Sunday, the spa prolonged its closure by means of January 16. However, its web site famous that the eruption website was ‘a protected distance’ away.

Police begged locals to avoid the eruption website.

‘We ask individuals to not go to the eruption on foot,’ native police stated. ‘It is extraordinarily chilly outdoors and the stroll is lengthy and the bottom is unstable when it comes to cracks and different issues.

‘In addition, all responders are busy and would not have the manpower to choose up individuals who depart on foot.’

They famous that the realm across the volcano was harmful as a consequence of fissures, fuel and different hazards.

Iceland’s prime minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, urged residents to band collectively and uplift each other.

‘Today is a black day for Grindavík and at this time is a black day for all of Iceland, however the solar will rise once more,’ she stated. ‘Together we’ll cope with this shock and no matter might come. Our ideas and prayers are with you.’

The evacuation, she insisted, was known as on the proper time. 

‘Of course, now we have all eyes on this space to make sure the protection of the residents. However, it’s fairly clear that it is a big burden for the townspeople. Naturally, the stress is beginning to take its toll on individuals,’ she continued.

‘As the scenario is now, we’re seeing that the lava is flowing in the direction of Grindavík. The ramparts, nonetheless, could also be helpful even when the southern a part of the fissure extends into them. We are monitoring the scenario from minute to minute.’ 

The nation’s president issued his personal assertion.

‘We are nonetheless reminded of the ability of the forces of nature,’ President Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson stated. ‘And nonetheless we hope for the perfect, as we do the whole lot in our energy to make sure individuals’s lives. [We are trying] to guard constructions to the perfect of our potential. 

‘Together we Icelanders suppose warmly of [residents of Grindavík], and everybody who takes care of public safety and operations on the scene. Now we’re all examined.’

Iceland is residence to 33 lively volcano techniques, the very best quantity in Europe.

The January 14 eruption is Iceland’s fifth in two years, the earlier one occurring on December 18, 2023 in the identical area southwest of Reykjavik. 

That eruption began within the Svartsengi volcanic system and got here after Grindavík’s 4,000 inhabitants fully evacuated.

The fishing city was finally spared because the lava flowed in a special route.

While volcanic eruptions aren’t unusual in Iceland, volcanoes on the Reykjanes Peninsula have been dormant for 800 years till 2021. 

Lying between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates, two of the most important on the planet, Iceland is a seismic and volcanic scorching spot as the 2 plates transfer in reverse instructions. 

The December eruption started round 2.4 miles from the city of Grindavík on the Sundhjuka crater, on the Reykjanes peninsula. 

Thrill-seekers have been criticised for venturing in the direction of, not away, from the eruption that compelled hundreds to flee their properties. 

‘It’s simply one thing from a film!’ Robert Donald Forrester III, a vacationer from the United States, stated on the time. 

A gaggle of boys named instructed native media in December that they often headed in the direction of eruptions in Reykjanes.

‘We are attempting to see the eruption. Unfortunately, we did not get any nearer. It’s a pastime that we have had for 4 years, attending each single eruption, and we’ll proceed to take action.’