Witness Kilauea Volcano Eruption Up Close and Personal!

Last Thursday, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano made its presence known to the Leliano Estates subdivision area by, you guessed it, sending lava streams through a fissure in the ground. When that happened, self described “volcano chaser” Demian Barrios was among the first professional photographers on the scene.

He parked his truck some 500 feet up the street from where lava was sputtering to the sky, took out his drone and flew it over the eruption.

It is not the videographer’s first drone attempt – he flew another one over a different volcano just a year ago. Unfortunately, it loomed just a bit too close and the heat melted the gimbal and camera lens.

This time though, Barrios navigated around the smoke in order to capture the breathtaking image of the eruption, which you can see above.

“It was probably one of the most breathtaking initial images from a drone that I’ve ever seen. I’d never actually witnessed a fissure eruption before, and I just sat there and looked at it for a few minutes before I took the photos.”, Barrios said for Wired. 

He considers it to be one of the finest shots he has ever taken in almost two decades of chasing volcanoes.

As spectacular as it might be, the eruption has forced around 1,500 residents to evacuate, with at least 100 people staying in shelters.

Geophysicists have said that there is no way of knowing when the eruption will come to a stop.