PAHOA: A stream of lava blocked a Hawaii highway on Sunday that serves as an escape route for coastal residents, while the first known serious injury was reported from fresh explosive eruptions from the Kilauea volcano.

A homeowner on Noni Farms Road who was on a third-floor balcony had his leg shattered from his shin to his foot when hit by lava spatter, said Janet Snyder, a spokesperson for the Office of the Mayor, County of Hawaii.

She added that lava spatters “can weigh as much as a refrigerator and even small pieces of spatter can kill.” No other information was immediately available.

As magma destroyed four more homes, molten rock from two huge cracks merged into a single stream, threatening to block other escape routes and touching off brush fires.

The erupting lava, which can reach a blistering 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,093 degrees Celsius), crossed Highway 137 shortly before midnight local time, Hawaii’s Civil Defence Agency said, and sent lava flowing into the ocean.

That prompted warnings of laze — clouds of hydrochloric acid and steam embedded with fine glass particles formed when hot lava hits ocean water.

Authorities were trying on Sunday to open up a road that was blocked by lava in 2014 to serve as an alternative escape route, Jessica Ferracane of the National Park Service told reporters.

The park service is working to bulldoze almost a mile of hardened lava out of the way on nearby Highway 11, which has been impassable, she added.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2018