Iceland | Houses on fire after new volcanic eruption near Grindavik

(Reykjavik) A volcano erupted on Sunday near the fishing port of Grindavik in southwest Iceland, spewing lava from two cracks in the ground, which set empty homes on fire.

Seismic activity accelerated sharply during the night and the few dozen residents who had resettled at the end of December in this small town, located about forty km southwest of Reykjavik, were evacuated around 3 a.m. (local and GMT).

Two cracks then opened, one around 8 a.m. some 400 meters from the town and the other at midday on the edge of the first homes, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO), spewing large flows. bright orange lava.

In the middle of the afternoon, the first two houses were hit by the burning lava and immediately caught fire, releasing large plumes of black smoke, according to images from surveillance cameras broadcast by Icelandic public television. The fire then spread to one house after another.

“In a small town like this, we are all like family, we all know each other like family, so it’s a tragedy to see this,” reacted Sveinn Ari Gudjonsson, 55, an evacuated Grindavik resident in November.

“It’s unreal. It’s like watching a movie,” adds this man who works in the fishing industry.

Icelandic President Gudni Johannesson is due to speak at 8 p.m. local time, according to public broadcaster RUV.

Earlier, he assured that “no lives are in danger”, as “the city has already been successfully evacuated overnight”. “But the infrastructure could be threatened,” he said in a message on X.

This is the fifth volcanic eruption in Iceland in almost three years, the previous one taking place on the evening of December 18 in the same area.

Grindavik, which has 4,000 inhabitants, was evacuated on November 11 as a precaution after hundreds of earthquakes caused by the movement of magma under the earth’s crust – a precursor to a volcanic eruption.

These earthquakes damaged the city, creating large cracks in the roads and in houses and public buildings.

Geothermal power plant

Shortly after the eruption of December 18, residents were allowed to return there briefly and then permanently since December 23, before being urgently evacuated during the night.

Only a few dozen residents had returned to their homes.

Authorities on Saturday evening issued an order to evacuate the city by Monday due to seismic activity and its impact on existing crevasses in the city. So they had to pick up the pace during the night.

This decision also follows the disappearance on Wednesday of a 51-year-old Icelander who was working to fill a crevice in a private garden when the ground suddenly gave way under his feet.

The man, who was not found, fell more than thirty meters into a crevasse.

The authorities are closely monitoring the Svartsengi geothermal power station, located in the same area and which provides electricity and water to around 30,000 inhabitants of the region, and whose installations are protected by a wall.

Until the March 2021 eruption, the Reykjanes Peninsula, south of the capital Reykjavik, had been spared from eruptions for eight centuries.

There were four others, in August 2022 and July 2023, on December 18, 2023 and this Sunday morning, a sign, for volcanologists, of a resumption of volcanic activity in the region.

Four days after the December 18 eruption, authorities declared that volcanic activity had stopped, but could not say whether the eruption was over, due to possible lava flows underground.

Thirty-three volcanic systems are considered active in this country of fire and ice, the most volcanic region in Europe.