KALAPANA, Hawaii >> Madame Pele put on an early Fourth of July fireworks display at Kilauea Volcano’s East Rift Zone, drawing hundreds, and it’s sure to continue through the holiday weekend and beyond.

The fiery red waterfall of lava lights up the night sky as it dramatically pours over the Pulama pali (cliff), and is clearly visible from a vantage point at the end of Highway 130 in Kalapana, delighting locals and travelers from around the world.

London natives Kate and Dermot Duggan, both 53, moved three years ago to Kona and took the 2-1/2-hour drive out to Kalapana on Thursday after reading about the flow on Facebook and walked the 3-mile roadway and back.

“You’ve got to take the moment to stop and see it,” Kate Duggan said. “Or you might never see it,” finished husband Dermot.

“What I didn’t realize was how bright it is,” Dermot Duggan said. “And walking past the houses is surreal,” surmising some had been run over and rebuilt. “We’re very lucky to live on this island at the heart of creation. … Coming over the edge, it’s so dramatic. … It’s like looking into the underworld.”

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologist Matt Patrick said the flow, which had been moving 600 to 700 yards a day, slowed Thursday as the lava pooled at the base of the Pulama pali. It moved about 150 yards beyond the base, along the western boundary of the abandoned Royal Gardens subdivision.

Hawaii County Civil Defense opened the emergency access gravel road for the first time ever for public viewing of the lava flow Thursday.

“The route is the one unique thing out of all the previous lava flows,” said Ed Teixeira, interim county Civil Defense administrator. “One of our goals is to preserve this road for as long as possible.”

The emergency road was built in 2014 as an emergency access when lava threatened Pahoa and the surrounding area.

The county is asking the public to remain on the roadway until the end of the 3-mile section of the 8.5-mile road, where a gate separates the county side from Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. The lava fields on either side of the road are private property.

More than 600 people arrived Thursday at the county’s Kalapana viewing site, set up with parking areas and portable toilets. Security guards monitor the area from 3 to 9 p.m.

Visitors are allowed to hike through the national park lands, open 24 hours, to the current flow, a roughly 8-mile round-trip trek over mounds of pahoehoe, which is often sharp and uneven with deep crevices, but it’s not recommended.

Jessica Ferracane, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park spokeswoman, said the current flow is visible from the national park, but the closest views are from Kalapana.

“The air quality is bad,” she said. Volcanic gases are dangerous to infants, young children, pregnant women and those with heart and respiratory problems, she added.

Hiking to the flow is a grueling 11-mile round trip from the park side at the end of the Chain of Craters Road.

Jennifer Dalpozzo, 53, of Australia, who hiked out from Kalapana, said, “It’s pretty amazing.”

However, she stayed back when her teenage sons and husband wanted to go farther, getting 500 yards from the flow. “I didn’t want to be running across the lava with no light,” she said.

While the views of the glowing lava against the dark night are stunning, it is difficult to navigate on the black lava with no markers. Flashlights and water are recommended.

Earlier, nearby ranch resident Leilani Wilcox, 30, sat atop the hood of her Jeep Wrangler, trying to capture the lava with her camera. “It’s just mesmerizing to watch. It’s so beautiful. My mind tells me it’s destruction, but my heart tells me it’s new land. It’s part of the circle of life.”

After living in Kona for seven years, “it was the first time I’ve seen something so spectacular,” said Michelle Tucker. “It’s happening. We’re going to do it now,” she told her family visiting from California.

While her family hiked out, Tucker, who has a bad hip, struck up a conversation with former Kalapana resident Aku Hauanio, who arrived on his ATV from his home 2 miles away to watch the developing flow.

In 1991 lava overran his property. “It’s 100 feet high now,” he said. “I was born and raised down here,” said the 64-year-old retired Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park employee, who maintains ties with residents by sharing his fish with them.

During a previous lava flow, Harry Kim, former mayor and Civil Defense administrator, tapped him “to work here since I knew everybody in the community” and could monitor local traffic, keeping out outsiders who were ripping off people, he said.

The current flow is far from homes, but Civil Defense is concerned with local access and canvassed the area Wednesday with fliers, counting eight families along the road, some who live there part time, Teixeira said.