It happened in an instant. One minute, Darryl Clinton was on the phone with a friend, watching the spectacle of ongoing eruptions in lower Puna from a third floor lanai.
The next, he'd been hit on the leg with a "lava bomb" — his left foot nearly detached and miles away from medical help.
"It threw me against the wall like the worst impact I've ever had in my life, just so much force," he said Tuesday, in his first interview with reporters since getting injured last weekend. "I landed on a sofa chair that was on fire from the lava exploding ... and then my foot fell off my leg so it was like a hinge."
Clinton lives at the property, which belongs to a friend.
He was trying to prevent lava bombs like the one that nearly killed him from starting a fire that would take down the home.
And, he admits, he was there to see the ongoing eruptions up close.