Shortly after midnight on the 23rd of January 1973 the volcano on the
Heimaey island started.
Most of the population was fast asleep. It was fortunate that most of the fishing fleet was in harbor. The inhabitants of the island where evacuated during the early hours on the first day without any fatalities. The film shows the many different happenings during the eruption; burning houses, buildings that collapsed, and the pumping of water on the moving lava to direct the lava-flow away from buildings.
The film also documents the planting of grass and vegitation and the effort to rinse the town of pumice which lay evenly spread over the whole island.
Language: Icelandic, English and German
