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This is the dramatic moment scorching lava from Iceland’s volcanic eruption surged towards construction workers and their vehicles as they desperately tried to build a defensive wall to protect the fishing town of Grindavik from the molten rock.
Brave workmen had raced to the edge of the lava flow to save their work machines that were being used to build defensive barriers around Grindavik after the volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula erupted for the second time in less than a month.
Nail-biting footage shows the construction workers working against the clock to evacuate from the area and save the machines with the scorching lava seen just yards away as they move as quickly as the slow excavators and bulldozers will allow.
The video, filmed by a worker inside an excavator, shows a bulldozer barrelling towards the road as flames lick the right side of the road and flaming molten lava seen in the wing mirror. Foreman Ármann Jón Garðarsson said no one was hurt in the dramatic evacuation effort and all vehicles were saved.
It comes as the desperate hunt for a man who plunged down a fissure opened by the volcano continued today after Iceland’s president said the country is battling ‘tremendous forces of nature’.
Dismayed residents of Grindavik, who were all evacuated from the fishing town before the second eruption began yesterday morning, have had to watch from afar as the scorching lava engulfed several of their homes.
Despite the workmen’s best efforts to build a defensive barrier around the town, the molten rock streamed towards homes in the northernmost tip of the town and incinerated them within minutes.
‘This is serious, it’s basically as bad as it can possibly get. Although it might get even worse, who knows,’ evacuated resident Jon Gauti Dagbjartsson said on Sunday.
‘I actually live in the house that I was born in and it’s a tough thought to think that this town might be over, and I would have to start all over somewhere else. But if that’s the case, then that’s exactly what we’ll do,’ he said.
President Gudni Th. Johannesson said in a televised addressed late Sunday that ‘a daunting period of upheaval has begun on the Reykjanes peninsula’ after the dormant volcanic system awakened after almost 800 years.
It comes as hundreds of people have been searching for the workman since Wednesday after he fell through a crevasse he had been trying to fill in. The workman was being lowered into the crack, which is around 10 metres deep, when he fell.
Rescue efforts have been hampered by the conditions and the fact that the small gap can only fit two people at the time to look for him. And the conditions worsened on Sunday when the volcano erupted a second time.
In the hours before the volcano erupted on Sunday morning, authorities had ordered residents to leave the fishing town of Grindavik as a swarm of small earthquakes indicated an imminent eruption.
Geophysicist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson said on Monday morning that the eruption had ‘decreased considerably’ overnight, but that it was impossible to say when it would end.
Grindavik, a town of 3,800 people about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of the capital, Reykjavik, was previously evacuated in November when the Svartsengi volcanic system awakened after almost 800 years.
The volcano eventually erupted on Dec. 18, sending lava flowing away from Grindavik. Residents were allowed to return to their homes on Dec. 22.
Since then, emergency workers have been building defensive walls that have stopped much of the lava flow from the new eruption short of the town.
But those defensive walls were no match for the lava flow on Sunday morning, with the molten rock flowing towards homes and incinerating them.
‘According to the first images from the Coast Guard’s surveillance flight, a crack has opened on both sides of the defenses that have begun to be built north of Grindavík,’ the Icelandic Meteorological Office said in a statement.
Molten lava flows reached the outskirts of Grindavik around noon on Sunday, setting three houses alight, although the town was evacuated earlier and there was no immediate danger to people.
‘In a little village like this one, we’re like a family, we all know each other as family – it’s tragic seeing this,’ local resident Sveinn Ari Gudjonsson said. ‘It’s unreal, it’s like watching a film,’ added the 55-year-old, who works in the fishing industry.
No one has been killed in the eruptions, but a workman is missing after reportedly falling into a crack opened by the volcano.
‘We don’t yet know how this eruption will unfold, but we must still take those actions that are within our power,’ the president said.
‘We continue to hope for as good an outcome as possible, in the face of these tremendous forces of nature,’ he added. ‘We will carry on with our responsibilities and we will continue to stand together.’
Video taken from an Icelandic Coastguard helicopter shows huge pools of molten rock and a wall of flames rising into the night sky.
Víðir Reynisson, chief supervisor of the Office of the National Commissioner of the Police, told local media that ‘no one is going into Grindavíkuntil we are absolutely sure that it will be OK.’
Live video footage on Monday showed glimpses of orange lava still flowing to the surface but at smaller volumes, and further away from the town.
Geologists on Sunday said magma corridors were believed to be flowing underneath the abandoned town, however, posing continued risk.
‘Unfortunately (the lava) went a little bit more south than we had hoped for,’ the head of Iceland’s Civil Protection and Emergency Management, Vidir Reynisson, told a press conference late on Sunday.
Flights to and from the country were not affected as of Sunday, and Iceland Air confirmed that the operations of Keflavík Airport were not impacted.
But devastating lava flows razed several homes in Grindavík, according to local media, with the potential for more destruction looming ahead.
Lovísa Mjöll Guðmundsdóttir, a natural disaster expert at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, said: ‘It cannot be ruled out that more cracks will open.
‘The GPS data showed us that there is increased magma inflow into the tunnel and with that there is a possibility of more fissures opening up.’
Police chief Víðir Reynisson, citing the Icelandic Met Office, warned that ‘there is no end to magma inflow into the tunnel, and as a result we need to be prepared and focus our actions on the real danger, a large crack opening in Grindavík, major gas pollution from this and then the possible opening of new eruptions.’
The Icelandic government will meet on Monday to decide on support for the people of Grindavik.
‘We need to put a lot of extra efforts into finding more housing, suitable housing,’ Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir said.
Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, averages one eruption every four to five years. The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed clouds of ash into the atmosphere and disrupted trans-Atlantic air travel for months.
The latest eruption isn’t expected to release large amounts of ash into the air. Operations at Keflavík Airport are continuing as normal, said Gudjon Helgason, spokesman for airport operator Isavia.
Residents of Grindavík were evacuated around 3am local time on Sunday as seismic activity continued to intensify.
The Public Safety Department of the National Police reported that 200 earthquakes were recorded overnight, with Grindavík losing power at around 5am.
But by Sunday night, eruption in the fissure had largely subsided.
‘It seems to us that it has almost stopped, the lava flow by these houses,’ said Böðvar Sveinsson, a natural disaster expert at the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
The Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, one of Iceland’s biggest tourist attractions, shuttered after reopening just one week prior.
On Sunday, the spa extended its closure through January 16. However, its website noted that the eruption site was ‘a safe distance’ away.
Police begged locals to steer clear of the eruption site.
‘We ask people not to go to the eruption on foot,’ local police said. ‘It is extremely cold outside and the walk is long and the ground is unstable in terms of cracks and other things.
‘In addition, all responders are busy and do not have the manpower to pick up people who leave on foot.’
They noted that the area around the volcano was dangerous due to fissures, gas and other hazards.
Iceland’s prime minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, urged residents to band together and uplift one another.
‘Today is a black day for Grindavík and today is a black day for all of Iceland, but the sun will rise again,’ she said. ‘Together we will deal with this shock and whatever may come. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.’
The evacuation, she insisted, was called at the right time.
‘Of course, we have all eyes on this area to ensure the safety of the residents. However, it is quite clear that this is a huge burden for the townspeople. Naturally, the pressure is starting to take its toll on people,’ she continued.
‘As the situation is now, we are seeing that the lava is flowing towards Grindavík. The ramparts, however, may be useful even if the southern part of the fissure extends into them. We are monitoring the situation from minute to minute.’
The country’s president issued his own statement.
‘We are still reminded of the power of the forces of nature,’ President Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson said. ‘And still we hope for the best, as we do everything in our power to ensure people’s lives. [We are trying] to protect structures to the best of our ability.
‘Together we Icelanders think warmly of [residents of Grindavík], and everyone who takes care of public protection and operations on the scene. Now we are all tested.’
Iceland is home to 33 active volcano systems, the highest number in Europe.
The January 14 eruption is Iceland’s fifth in two years, the previous one occurring on December 18, 2023 in the same region southwest of Reykjavik.
That eruption started in the Svartsengi volcanic system and came after Grindavík’s 4,000 inhabitants completely evacuated.
The fishing town was ultimately spared as the lava flowed in a different direction.
While volcanic eruptions aren’t uncommon in Iceland, volcanoes on the Reykjanes Peninsula were dormant for 800 years until 2021.
Lying between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates, two of the largest on the planet, Iceland is a seismic and volcanic hot spot as the two plates move in opposite directions.
The December eruption began around 2.4 miles from the town of Grindavík at the Sundhjuka crater, on the Reykjanes peninsula.
Thrill-seekers were criticised for venturing towards, not away, from the eruption that forced thousands to flee their homes.
‘It’s just something from a movie!’ Robert Donald Forrester III, a tourist from the United States, said at the time.
A group of boys named told local media in December that they usually headed towards eruptions in Reykjanes.
‘We are trying to see the eruption. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any closer. It’s a hobby that we’ve had for four years, attending every single eruption, and we’ll continue to do so.’
