A day after the June 27 lava flow claimed its first Pahoa home, Hawaii County Civil Defense reported that the leading edge of the flow remained stalled 480 feet from Pahoa Village Road. But activity taking the form of a
A day after the June 27 lava flow claimed its first Pahoa home, Hawaii County Civil Defense reported that the leading edge of the flow remained stalled 480 feet from Pahoa Village Road. But activity taking the form of a number of breakouts further up slope behind the flow front continued.
The breakout that destroyed the single-story home on Monday was continuing to expand parallel to Pahoa Village Road and Apa‘a Street/Cemetery Road, rather than advancing down the hill, according to Hawaii County Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira.
“It is moving in a north to south orientation, and is advancing slowly in that area,” he said after Monday morning’s flyover of the 45-acre plot of private property. “It did cross the driveway in multiple locations, making it difficult to access the property at this time.”
A garage that at one point appeared would be impacted by lava well before the home has so far survived intact. The lava, which was reported to be on a sidewalk within 2 feet of the structure, did not appear to have moved any closer to the detached building since Monday.
“We just walked through it in the last hour and a half, and there appeared to be no advancement on the garage property,” Oliveira said. “We do see inflation though. It’s probably about 2 feet high, and more than 4 feet tall behind the garage structure. We still see activity around the garage structure.”
Intermittent black smoke was seen coming from a fish pond, he added, which has a vinyl liner that appeared to be catching fire at times.
Meanwhile, a breakout to the west above the Pahoa Transfer Station breached the fence of the property at around 8 a.m., and a narrow finger of lava was encroaching upon a driveway that encircles the property.
“The finger was 2-3 feet wide at the most and it did drop down along the perimeter fence and the elevated berm with the fence. It (the finger) is about 12 feet long and 2-3 feet wide. The activity was also showing signs of inflation along the fence,” he said.
A third breakout about .37 miles mauka of Apa‘a Street/Cemetery Road continued to expand in a north-northeast direction, and had moved about 220 yards in 24 hours.
“We’re definitely watching all these breakouts,” he said.
There was no brushfire threat in the area, due to recent rains which kept the grounds wet, with plenty of puddling, Oliveira said.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
