FIRE AND LAVA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26289, 22 October 1946, Page 8

FIRE AND LAVA

NIUAFOOU ERUPTIONS (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 21. Vivid details of the experiences of residents-on the island of Niuafoou are reported by the Suva correspondent of the New Zealand Press Association in an interview with Mr S. Malekamu, who was Tongan Government radio operator on the island at the time of Ihe volcanic outburst last month. Mr Malekamu declares that had all the craters on the island erupted simultaneously many of the islanders would have been trapped without a hope of escape, but fortunately the Angaha craters seemed to wait until the people were out of the danger area before erupting. He also believes that, had the first outbreak come in the middle of the night, the loss of life would have been terrible. About 7 p.m. on September 9, Mr Malekamu states, a series of earth tremors started, reaching a frequency at one every five seconds. About 8.15 he ran outside the radio station and found the western approach to Angaha, the principal centre of Niuafoou, a wall of flame and smoke hundreds of feet high. “We could hear great trees and coconut calms snapping, and found they were being mown down by flooding waves of burning lava,” he said. "The fire, with astounding swiftness, reached the western end of Angaha, and was almost at the hospital. The whole area from the sea up to Esia village and towards Sapaata village was ablaze.” 6 Mr. Malekamu describes how. a few minutes after he left the wireless station, the crater seemed to open up from the sea. ”We ran for our lives,” he said, “ straight through to Sapaata. Men, women, children, and animals were struggling up the hill. The whole scene was lit by a lurid flare of flames, but the moon was hidden by soaring banks of fire and smoke. From Sapaata we could see that the place where we had stood a short time before had disappeared under the blaze. Everyone headed for Mokotu Point, a mile from Angaha, and from Mokotu we could see the fire surging over Angaha.” Later in the night craters were seen to have opened up all through Angaha, many of them spouting flames without lava. . . j A survey the next morning showed that while the hospital, school, and teachers’ quarters had escaped, everyone else, including the Government buildings, Free Church of Tonga, and private houses, had gone. There were three big. craters in Angaha and nine others on the outskirts. Yet another crater in the sea itself covered the landing place with lava, giving the island the best anchorage it has known. The lava pier runs well out to sea, but it remains to be seen whether it will withstand the force of the waves. Mr Malekamu describes the islanders’ ordeal until thev received relief supplies by air and sea.