INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
HONOLULU: A blob of hot volcanic lava struck an ocean tour boat just off the Big Island of Hawaii on Monday, injuring nearly two dozen
people in the worst casualty incident to date from the ongoing eruption of the Kilauea Volcano, fire officials said.One woman's leg was
broken when the "lava bomb," which spattered out of the water with explosive force nearby as molten rock poured into the ocean, landed on
the roof of the vessel and crashed into the seating area, said Hawaii County Fire Department Battalion Chief Darwin Okinaka.The boat was
able to return to its port in Hilo less than an hour later, and three of the injured were taken to a local hospital by ambulance, Okinaka
At least nine others with less severe injuries were driven to the hospital by private vehicle, and 10 more people were treated by paramedics
at the port, he told Reuters by telephone.A civil defence spokeswoman, Kelly Wooten, put the total number of injuries at 23.The Hawaii
Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) said the boat was operated by Lava Ocean Tours, one of at least three companies offering
daily excursions to passengers who pay around $220 per person to watch from a vessel lava flowing into the sea.Officials for the company
were not immediately available for comment.State and local police and the DLNR were investigating the incident, which occurred shortly after
dawn near the eastern-most edge of the Big Island, where lava from the 10-week-old Kilauea eruption has been flowing into the Pacific since
early June.The boat's distance from shore and from the site of the lava explosion was not immediately known, fire and civil defence
authorities said.Two entire housing developments consisting of hundreds of dwellings were destroyed several weeks ago as lava spewing from a
fissure on the slope of the volcano inundated the seaside Kapoho area in the vicinity of Monday's accident
Hundreds more homes have been swallowed closer to the eruption site itself.The property losses marked the most destructive eruption of
Kilauea in modern times, but no fatalities have been reported.The most serious previous injury was of a man whose leg was shattered in May
when he was hit by molten lava ejected by a volcanic fissure while he was standing on the third-floor balcony of his home about 200 yards
(meters) from a flow in the Pahoa area.The passenger whose leg was fractured on the boat on Monday, a woman in her 20s, was listed in
serious condition, Okinaka said
The other tourists hurt in the incident suffered minor burns and other more superficial injuries he said.© Thomson Reuters 2018(Except for
the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
