(Photo : Photo by Mark Renders/Getty Images) Fractures opened up in the volcano's rocky walls, pouring fast-moving lava down its slopes, and conditions suddenly exploded late on May 22, local time. Any of it made its way to Goma, a six-mile-wide metropolis with a population of 1.5 million inhabitants. The night sky glowed crimson as lava, often three stories high, rushed through the streets of many villages surrounding Goma, swallowing any structures it came across and setting them on fire. There have been 15 reported casualties as of this writing, with the figure predicted to increase in the coming days. According to figures, two early eruptions of Nyiragongo, in 1977 and 2002, were full-fledged disasters. lava floods killed between 600 and 2,000 people in 1977. Molten rock obliterated up to a quarter of Goma in 2002, displacing 120,000 people and killing about 250 people due to carbon dioxide asphyxiation, burns, and a lava-triggered gas station blast.