Accidents on Stromboli volcano

Explosion on 26. August 1999, twp persons injured

Report by Henrik Berger, Ilmenau, Deutschland.

«My friend and I and another couple had climbed Stromboli on 25.8.99 on the normal route. We camped exactly on Pizzo. Next to us was a further couple, further away a single person, i.e. there were seven people on the summit.

The whole thing started with a normal eruption of Crater 3, which produced the usual amount of ash and littly glowing lava. Maybe one minute later, at 0:57 (according to my watch, 26.8.99), a significant tremor occurred. In my memory it lasted less than the five seconds mentioned in the newspapers. Immediately this was followed by a eruption at Crater 1. Less than one seconds afterwards the small middle hole exploded (which previously had glowed red) with an incredible bang. Out of this hole and out of Crater 1 the lava shot to about twice the «usual» height. Most pyroclasts were ejected by Crater 1.

We fled backwards in panic. Near us, bombs impacted audibly. The largest, which continued to glow for quite some time, were about 50 x 30 centimeters large. Also a lot of non-glowing material was ejected. Nobody was directly hit, except one lady, whose hand was hit by a glowing piece of scoria. She suffered an injury on one finger. My girlfriend had, unfortunately, been sleeping barefoot in her sleeping bag. During our escape, she stepped on some glowing lava and suffered minor burns on her feet, some others on the hands and a very large concussion on the left upper thigh. On the other side of Pizzo another person must have fallen over a larger junk of lava as he suffered burns on his belly.»