Lava spatter from one of the Kilauea volcano’s many explosive flows struck a man and shattered his leg in the first known injury since the heightened volcanic activity began on May 3, according to reports.
The spatter crushed his leg from his shin to his foot, and the spokesperson said that lava spatter “can weigh as much as a refrigerator and even small pieces of spatter can kill.”
The man was rushed to a local hospital, reportedABC News. No other information on the incident was immediately available.
It has been more than two weeks since the volcano’s initial burstsent lava shooting up from the ground— and residents running from their Leilani Estates homes on Hawaii’s Big Island.
Over 2,000 Hawaii residents have been ordered to evacuate as the islandhas seen numerous fissures, CBS News reported. On Sunday,a large crack opened near the ocean, swallowing the lava into the ground, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
BRUCE OMORI/PARADISE HELICOPTERS/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
“Health hazards of laze include lung, eye and skin irritation,” officials told residents, according toUSA Today. “Be aware that the laze plume travels with the wind and can change direction without warning.”
Last week, the 17th fissure split the earth near Leilani Estates, CNN reported at the time. The massive fissure is several hundred yards long and has caused“lava fountaining, explosion of spatter bombs hundreds of feet into the air, and several advancing lava flow lobes moving generally northeast,”the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said.
Footage of the 18th fissure, which also opened last week, showed lava bubbling above trees.
The initial burst came after hundreds of earthquakes rattled the area for days, with a magnitude 5.0 quake recorded shortly before the explosion earlier this month, according to theAssociated Press. The quakes were triggered after the Puu Oo crater floor began to collapse just days earlier.
source: people.com
