Dramatic video exhibits lava flowing in the direction of Icelandic workmen

This is the dramatic second scorching lava from Iceland’s volcanic eruption surged in the direction of development employees and their autos as they desperately tried to construct a defensive wall to guard the fishing city of 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 on the Reykjanes peninsula erupted for the second time in lower than a month. 

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

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

It comes because the determined hunt for a person who plunged down a fissure opened by the volcano continued at present after Iceland’s president mentioned 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 houses. 

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

‘This is severe, it is mainly as unhealthy as it will probably presumably get. Although it’d get even worse, who is aware of,’ evacuated resident Jon Gauti Dagbjartsson mentioned on Sunday. 

‘I really stay in the home that I used to be born in and it is a powerful thought to assume that this city could be over, and I must begin throughout some other place. But if that is the case, then that is precisely what we’ll do,’ he mentioned.

President Gudni Th. Johannesson mentioned 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. 

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 mentioned on Monday morning that the eruption had ‘decreased significantly’ in a single day, however that it was unimaginable to say when it will 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 houses 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 in need of 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 houses and incinerating them. 

‘According to the primary pictures from the Coast Guard’s surveillance flight, a crack has opened on either side of the defenses which have begun to be constructed north of Grindavík,’ the Icelandic Meteorological Office mentioned in a press release. 

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 quick hazard to individuals.

‘In somewhat 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 mentioned. ‘It’s unreal, it is like watching a movie,’ added the 55-year-old, who works within the fishing trade.

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 understand how this eruption will unfold, however we should nonetheless take these actions which might be inside our energy,’ the president mentioned.

‘We proceed to hope for nearly as good an end result as doable, within the face of those super forces of nature,’ he added. ‘We will stick with it with our duties and we are going to proceed to face collectively.’

Video taken from an Icelandic Coastguard helicopter exhibits enormous swimming pools of molten rock and a wall of flames rising into the night time 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 positive that will probably 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 mentioned magma corridors have been believed to be flowing beneath the deserted city, nevertheless, posing continued threat.

‘Unfortunately (the lava) went somewhat bit extra south than we had hoped for,’ the top 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 houses in Grindavík, in keeping with native media, with the potential for extra destruction looming forward.

Lovísa Mjöll Guðmundsdóttir, a pure catastrophe knowledgeable on the Icelandic Meteorological Office, mentioned: ‘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 consequently we must be ready and focus our actions on the actual hazard, a big crack opening in Grindavík, main gasoline 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 further efforts into discovering extra housing, appropriate housing,’ Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir mentioned.

Iceland, which sits above a volcanic scorching spot within the North Atlantic, averages one eruption each 4 to 5 years. The most disruptive in latest occasions 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, mentioned 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 shedding energy at round 5am.

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

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

The Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, certainly one of Iceland’s greatest vacationer points of interest, 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 secure distance’ away.

Police begged locals to avoid the eruption website.

‘We ask individuals to not go to the eruption on foot,’ native police mentioned. ‘It is extraordinarily chilly outdoors and the stroll is lengthy and the bottom is unstable by way of cracks and different issues.

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

They famous that the world across the volcano was harmful as a consequence of fissures, gasoline 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 present is a black day for all of Iceland, however the solar will rise once more,’ she mentioned. ‘Together we are going to take care of 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, we have now all eyes on this space to make sure the security of the residents. However, it’s fairly clear that this can be a enormous burden for the townspeople. Naturally, the strain 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, nevertheless, 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 facility of the forces of nature,’ President Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson mentioned. ‘And nonetheless we hope for the very best, as we do the whole lot in our energy to make sure individuals’s lives. [We are trying] to guard buildings to the very best of our potential. 

‘Together we Icelanders assume 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 utterly evacuated.

The fishing city was finally spared because the lava flowed in a unique 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 biggest 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 pressured hundreds to flee their houses. 

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

A gaggle of boys named instructed native media in December that they normally 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 interest that we have had for 4 years, attending each single eruption, and we’ll proceed to take action.’