“The Earth Ripped Apart”

It is a cold January night, 23rd day of the month, and most of the inhabitants of Heimaey are already sleeping. The radiogrammer Hjálmar Guðnason had asked his friend Ólafur Granz to accompany him on his daily midnight walk. The two friends were the first to spot the eruption. A 1600-metre long volcanic fissure had opened up on the east side of Heimaey, only 200 metres away from Hjálmar and Ólafur. It was a literal wall of fire, that would come to engulf a large portion of the island in the coming months. They alerted police instantly, and the sceptic policemen were in no hurry to make their way to the scene of what they believed to be a prank call. Once they witnessed the eruption, they wasted no time. Tephra and ash spread around the island in a matter of minutes, while the townspeople rushed to evacuate the island. When the dust settled, the eruption had destroyed over 400 buildings, and to this day, the island still has fewer residents than before the eruption.