Mt. Lamington, Papua New Guinea 1951
The people of Higaturu were given no warning of an impending eruption of Mt. Lamington in 1951. This is because the mountain was not considered a volcano. The forested top of the mountain had never shown signs of having a volcanic crater at its peak and therefore no one had ever studied it as such. That changed in 1951. On January 18th 1951, tremors began, volcanic bombs and lightning were seen and ash was coming up from the volcano. People living around the volcano ignored the signs. The media reported that officials never contacted volcanologists about the activity and told locals to stay put.
On January 21st, 1951 after three days of warning signs a massive roar was heard from over 300 km away and the side of the mountain was ripped apart. The force of the eruption caused an avalanche and devastating pyroclastic flows. A radius of 12km was considered to be the area of extreme damage with everything being completely destroyed. Those living in the town of Higaturu, located 14km from the volcano were either killed by the blast or from being burned to death. 3,000 people were killed and more than 5,000 lost their homes.
Rescue parties that arrived on the scene were stopped by the pumice dust and sulphurous fumes along with hot ashes on the ground. There were also further explosions and tremors throughout February and even into March which rained large pieces of debris from the mountain. A March 5th eruption threw large pieces of the volcanic dome and caused a pumice flow for 14km. The flow was so hot that every tree within its path was set on fire. It was only due to the dedicated study of volcanologist Tony Taylor that rescue crews were able to know when it was safe to venture into the area of devastation.