One person died and dozens of others threw themselves into the sea when a volcano on the Sicilian island of Stromboli violently exploded Wednesday. Massimo Imbesi, a 35-year-old from Milazzo in Sicily was killed in the eruption and a Brazilian friend who was with him was badly injured, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

The volcano is known to be active, but the two blasts reported by Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology around 10:30 a.m. were particularly powerful, and sent ash and embers raining down on the tourist hot spot. “It was like being in hell because of the rain of fire coming from the sky,” priest Giovanni Longo told local outlets, according to Agence France-Presse.