Loading ...When you live on a volcano… what’s the worst that could happen? We all surf the volcano in one way or another. There’s danger… and you learn to measure it and live with it. We all know that these are Mme. Pele’s lands, and she can take them at any time. In 1986, the day the flow was to take the first house, I and a TV photog. had a helicopter ride over the eruptive vent. We were a thousand feet above this, but it was like being shoved into an oven… so hot you couldn’t breathe.
I was lucky this day. That evening my photog friend and the same pilot went out after dark to catch the first house burning as lava engulfed it. NBC paid big bux to get that video. When they flew over this vent again, it had a major “BURP” and sprayed the helicopter with hot lava shards. Burned holes in the photog’s jacket as he hung out the door, and took nicks out of the helicopter blade. They limped back OK, but the machine was grounded for a rotor replacement after that. …just surfin’ the volcano!
P.S.- There was a reason I left Wisconsin… 🙂