Runner Captures Terrifying Volcano Escape on Camera

A 27-year-old Filipino man named Kenneth Urbano has shared dramatic footage of his narrow escape from an erupting Mount Mayon. The video, obtained by What's The Jam, shows a pyroclastic flow—a deadly mix of gas and superheated ash—chasing him and his friends as they fled for their lives on May 2.

Urbano was out for a jog with friends when a section of the volcano's dome collapsed, sending a torrent of ash and gas down the slope. At first, the group mistook the approaching cloud for a harmless patch of mist. “We didn’t think much of it,” Urbano said. “But when we got to the other side of the bypass road, we saw a giant wall of thick black smoke. We even stopped to take pictures.”

Then he noticed it was moving toward them. “That’s when we realized it wasn’t normal smoke,” he recalled. The men sprinted. Urbano kept his phone’s camera rolling, capturing the moment the ash cloud nearly swallowed them. A passing driver spotted them on the road and whisked them to safety.

Looking back, Urbano said the experience was surreal. “At first we were laughing, not understanding what was happening. Then it got very real.” The incident serves as a stark reminder of the unpredictable power of one of the Philippines’ most active volcanoes. In a separate event, a tourist in China survived a 200-meter fall off a cliff after a tree broke his fall.