Terrified vacationers pelted with red-hot lava as volcano they had been mountaineering up all of the sudden erupts
Terrified tourists hiking a volcano were pelted with red-hot lava when it suddenly erupted, with video showing rocks shattering nearby as one hiker’s coat was burned
A video grab showing the hikers being hit with a shower of lava rocks as the Volcán de Fuego erupted(Image: Jam Press)
Terrified tourists were pelted with red-hot lava when the volcano they were hiking up suddenly erupted. Dramatic footage shows a chunk of rock striking the ridge and shattering into several glowing fragments that flew in all directions.
A scream rang out as the group of hikers ducked for cover, with some sprinting away and one person scooping up a dog. In the background, a thick column of smoke could be seen billowing from the crater of Volcán de Fuego, west of Antigua, Guatemala.
Further footage showed how molten rock burnt a large hole straight through hiker Hana Garcia’s coat. Sharing the images last week, Hana wrote: “I wanted it to be the best day of my life, and it almost became the last.”
She later reassured followers: “The only thing that got hurt was my jacket.” Hana told local media: “The volcano erupted and I managed to film a little bit of it, but I didn’t record much because, while I was filming, I looked up and started seeing rocks falling.
“At that moment I was kind of in shock, and then I started running.” She said a piece of volcanic rock landed about “five centimetres in front of me” and “almost hit me in the head”.
Fuego is almost constantly active at a low level, producing small explosions of gas and ash every 15 to 20 minutes. The Fuego ridge hike is a highly strenuous add-on to the popular Acatenango overnight trek.
From Acatenango’s base camp, it descends into the saddle before climbing Fuego’s steep ash slopes, offering an up-close, terrifyingly beautiful view of ongoing eruptions. “But we weren’t expecting that accident with the rocks because they always fall on the other side,” Hana explained.
“It’s not something that usually happens. Lots of tourists have gone there, but nothing like this happens to them.
“Now it’s an unforgettable experience, and in a way a good one because it’s something we survived. But at the time we were absolutely terrified.”
There are roughly 1,500 potentially active volcanoes around the world, but the numbers change depending on what people mean by “active”. Scientists often separate volcanoes that could erupt again from those that are actually erupting right now.
On the broadest definition, about 1,500 volcanoes are classed as “potentially active” because they have erupted at least once in the last 10,000 years (the Holocene period) and could erupt again. Around three quarters of these sit around the Pacific Ocean’s so-called “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide and shift.
A smaller group are volcanoes in “continuing eruption” – meaning they are having ongoing or on-and-off eruptive activity without a break longer than three months. The Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program typically tracks about 40 to 50 volcanoes in this category at any one time.
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