AKIPRESS.COM - A stream of lava set a home on fire Monday in a rural Hawaii town that has been watching the slow-moving flow approach for months, reports AP.

The molten rock hit the house just before noon, said Hawaii County Civil Defense Director Darryl Oliveira. The home's renters already had left the residence in Pahoa, the largest town in Big Island's isolated and mostly agricultural Puna district.

It took about 45 minutes for the 1,100-square-foot home to burn down, Oliveira said. "The house has been destroyed," he said.

Earlier in the day, lava burned down a small corrugated steel storage shed on the property, Oliveira said. A garage or barn structure still remained on the property, but it was possible that the lava would also consume it.

The home's nearest neighbor is about a half-mile away, Oliveira said.

The lava from Kilauea volcano emerged from a vent in June and entered Pahoa Oct. 26, when it crossed a country road at the edge of town. Since then, it has smothered part of a cemetery and burned down a garden shed. It also burned tires, some metal materials and mostly vegetation in its path.

Firefighters will basically let a structure burn, but they will fight any wildfires that spread or threaten other structures, Oliveira said.

A relative of the home's owners, who live on the mainland, arrived at the site to watch the house burn, officials said. That family member drove from another part of the island about two hours away and used an iPhone to take video of the house burning.

The county estimates the value of the home at about $200,000, Oliveira said.