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 May 23, 2018, 1:59 AM GMT / Updated May 23, 2018, 1:59 AM GMT By Phil Helsel 
 
 A man injured by a "lava bomb" that shattered his leg amid the eruptions near Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano on Saturday says he’s lucky to be alive, and had the debris hit anywhere else he could have been killed. 
 
 Darryl Clinton was struck by a piece of rock and lava as he was on the third-floor balcony of a home he was protecting in the Puna district, where open fissures and lava flows have destroyed more than two dozen homes in an eruptive period that began more than two weeks ago. 
 
 The impact of the so-called lava bomb threw Clinton against a wall. "The worst impact I’ve ever had in my life," Clinton told NBC News Tuesday from his bed at a hospital in Hilo. "I mean, just so much force." 
 
 Clinton said that many of the rocks launched from the exploding fissures have an arcing trajectory with plenty of time to move. But this one "was a direct line-drive, as if it came out of a rifle barrel. It just went straight," he said. 
 
 "It was a mean one," Clinton said. "And I mean, it could have hit anywhere else and it would have been all over." 
 
 A friend dragged him to the ground floor and put Clinton into her truck, she called 911 and met up with fire crews, he said. At one point "I thought I was going to bleed to death," Clinton said. 
 
 Clinton was the first person to suffer a serious injury since the eruptive period began early this month. No deaths have been reported in the volcanic eruptions or lava flows. 
 
 Clinton said that after he was struck, he fell into a chair that was on fire from the lava. His foot was hanging from his ankle "like a hinge," but the prognosis is good and he was told he won’t be able to put any weight on his leg for around six weeks. The home is still standing, but it suffered some damage, he said. 
 
 The Kilauea volcano East Rift Zone eruption has been going on since 1983, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It ranks among one of the most active volcanoes on the planet, the agency says. The current eruptive phase and lava have forced around 2,000 people to evacuate. 
 
 Also Tuesday, officials said lava flow has slowly entered the property of a geothermal energy conversion plant in Puna. And lava from the fissures — there are now more than 20 — have crossed a coastal highway and entered the ocean, creating a condition called "laze," or plumes made up of a mix of hydrochloric acid gas, steam, and tiny volcanic glass particles. 
 
 Hawaii County civil defense said that lava has destroyed an old warehouse at the geothermal plant. The plant was shut down earlier this month shortly after Kilauea began spewing lava on May 3. 
 
 Officials earlier this month removed 50,000 gallons of stored flammable gas from the plant to reduce the chance of explosions. 
 
 An explosive eruption at Kilauea’s summit occurred on May 17, sending a plume of ash about 30,000 feet into the sky that began raining on a nearby town. 
 
 There have been other eruptions at the summit since, including one at 3:45 a.m. Tuesday local time (9:45 a.m. ET) that resulted in an ash plume that reached a height of around 8,000 feet, civil defense said. 
 
 Geologists say it remains unclear how long the eruptions will last, NBC affiliate KHNL reported. 
 
 The impact to tourism on Hawaii's Big Island are already being felt. Cancellations from May through July have hit at least $5 million, Ross Birch, executive director of the island's tourism board, told the Associated Press last week. 

 Pahoa, Hawaii (CNN) "You might want to step back," said Darryl Clinton as yet another explosion boomed nearby. 
 
 He seemed to know exactly what that sound meant. A fissure that violently cracked open the earth's surface was spewing more lava and, possibly, more lava bombs -- flying chunks of molten rock. 
 
 Clinton spoke to CNN on Friday, while defending two homes in Pahoa roughly 100 yards from the unstable fissure that's been erupting for more than a week now. 
 
 To get from one house to another took a life-or-death game of frogger. 
 
 Clinton pointed to the remains of one lava bomb purged from a nearby fissure that landed just inches from a friend's house. The yard was littered every few feet with fallen lava, but Clinton wasn't worried about getting hit by the hunks of molten rock. 
 
 "It's almost like catching a football," Clinton said in describing how to avoid being hit. "But you don't want to catch this football." 
 
 A lava bomb landed next to a house guarded by Darryl Clinton. 
 
 Armed with just a fire extinguisher and a garden hose, Clinton defended the homes of friends. 
 
 He sprayed down burning lava bombs that hit houses to prevent them from catching fire. Heaps of flaming rock shattered windows and destroyed a septic tank -- setting it ablaze with a blue flame of burning methane gas. 
 
 A day later, Clinton fell victim himself. He was talking on his cell phone for mere moments when a bowling ball-sized lava bomb hit him in the leg while he was on the porch. 
 
 "'That didn't just happen' was my first thought," he said Tuesday. "I knew it was real because of the pain." 
 
 The fiery bomb snapped bones in his leg. 
 
 "Then I got caught on fire, fell on the floor, grabbed my foot and leg and held 'em together," he said. 
 
 His ex-wife Lisa Roach was nearby and took him to the hospital. She was helping him defend the homes -- the pair were keeping watch in shifts. 
 
 Roach told CNN she believes the intense heat of the lava bomb actually cauterized the wound, preventing it from bleeding more than it did. 
 
 The burning projectile set Clinton's porch ablaze, but a neighbor managed to extinguish it. Clinton is currently in the hospital, recovering. Roach said he can already wiggle his toes, but won't be able to put weight on his injured foot for at least six weeks. 
 
 Saying 'goodbye to everything' 
 
 What's worse, fissures that look dormant can suddenly rage back to life, shooting fountains of flaming rocks into the air again. But no one can predict when or where the next eruption from the ground will happen, or where the lava flow will go next. 
 
 "It's all a guessing game," said Bruce Tickell, who owns two properties in the Pahoa area. 
 
 Dona Mueller is also packing up to leave her home. Deafening fissure explosions have been shaking her house. 
 
 "You can see it blew out this window," Mueller said, pointing to shards of glass on her upstairs bedroom floor. 
 
 Her family came to help her pack, but Mueller's not taking much with her. 
 
 "There's not much," she said. "I can walk away. It's stuff." 
 
 'I thought I was gonna bleed out' 
 
 Clinton has a metal rod in his leg and two broken bones. A cast covers part of his exposed bone. 
 
 He's had two surgeries already, and will likely have more. But he's expected to recover. 
 
 "It was the most extreme force I ever felt in my life," he said in an interview from his hospital bed, recalling the impact. "I thought I was gonna bleed out." 
 
 In spite of his injuries, he said he has no regrets about putting himself in harm's way. Up until the point he was hit, the risk injury seemed low enough to warrant trying to save the homes, he said. 
 
 Of course, though, if Clinton could do it again he would pay more attention and try not to get hit. 
 
 "For the most part, we've enjoyed the whole time -- front row seats to every aspect of a lava flow you can imagine," he said. "It's just been amazing when you see it close like that -- and then to be able to save a couple structures, at least help."
– Darryl Clinton seemed confident in his lava-dodging abilities Friday as he showed reporters how to avoid chunks of molten rock spewing from a fissure near homes in the Pahoa area of Hawaii's Big Island. Given the arcing trajectory of the rock, "it's almost like catching a football, but you don't want to catch this football," he told CNN. A day later, however, he briefly took his eye off the ball. While chatting on a cell phone on a balcony of a neighbor's home he was defending from the lava, Clinton was hit with a flying lava bomb that broke two bones in his leg and left his ankle hanging "like a hinge," reports NBC News. "'That didn't just happen' was my first thought," he now says, per CNN. "I knew it was real because of the pain … It was the most extreme force I ever felt in my life." While a neighbor put out flames from the lava bomb—launched as "a direct line-drive," according to Clinton, rather than the more typical arc—he was rushed to a hospital, where he remained Tuesday. "I thought I was gonna bleed out," he says, though his ex-wife tells CNN the scalding rock may have actually cauterized his wound. Still, the California native, who has lived in Hawaii for 12 years, won't be able to put weight on his injured leg, fitted with a metal rod, for at least six weeks, per KHON. But like most Hawaiians, Clinton isn't complaining. "For the most part, we've enjoyed the whole time—front row seats to every aspect of a lava flow you can imagine," he says about his quest to defend homes. "It's just been amazing." (Thanks to the Kilauea volcano, Hawaii is also battling a toxic steam cloud.)