Hawaii Video Showing Boulder Smashing Through Living Room Viewed 1m Times

A massive boulder barrelled down a mountain and smashed through a family's home–narrowly avoiding a homeowner who was about to step into its path.

The rock, 5 feet in diameter, missed Caroline Sasaki by just a couple of feet as she was walking into her living room at the very moment the boulder punched through the external wall and shot across directly in front of her.

The incident was caught on film by a home-security camera at the family's house in Palolo, O'ahu, Hawaii, on Saturday at 11:45 p.m.

Footage shared online by local news channel KHON 2 has been viewed more than 1.4 million times.

There was a huge crash as the boulder tore through home, punching out timbers and debris, and came to rest in a bedroom after destroying the external cinderblock wall and damaging an internal wall.

Sasaki managed to jump back in the nick of time and can be seen cowering in shock. Two other relatives, a man and a girl who were not identified by the news report, came into shot as Sasaki whimpered in fear, and the man said, "Are you OK? Whoa! Whoa, a rock just come down!" A fourth person was in the property.

Sasaki told KHON 2 on Sunday: "Today, I am a little better; but last night, I was very shaken. I really didn't know what happened except for the loud boom." She added that she had struggled to sleep since the boulder destroyed part of her home.

The family had only recently moved back into their house after completely rebuilding and renovating it, Sasaki said. The destroyed wall has now been temporarily boarded up with wood.

Sasaki fears a development project that has been carving out the mountain behind her home may be responsible for dislodging the boulder; something the property developer denies.

KHON 2 reported that other locals say they have never seen such a situation before, but claim three boulders had tumbled down into the valley within 24 hours over the weekend.

"It's never happened before, [despite] heavy rain and hurricane warnings—nothing," Sasaki said. "So, no rocks ever came down. We've had some issues with them carving the mountain, and I don't know if that's the cause...

"Department of permitting and planning, the Department of Emergency Management, the mayor, the councilman—they should all get involved because people's lives are at stake."

Development owner Bingning Li told KHON 2 that the incident is not connected to his construction work. "Not at all, this [boulder] is from way above," he said, adding: "So it hit one of the cables that was supposed to stop it, and the cable snapped. That took a lot of energy away, otherwise this damage would be way more."

Bingning said he will now arrange for an inspection by engineering experts, and he plans to reinforce a barrier wall around his development.

Hawaii News Now reported on Monday that the damage had yet to be assessed by insurers, and the boulder still remained inside Sasaki's home.

Newsweek has reached out to the Honolulu Fire Department for further information and comment.

The incident is not the first time a boulder fall has been captured on camera. Just last year, a chuck of mountain, about 20 feet high, tumbled down and crushed a row of parked cars in southern China—trapping two children inside one of the vehicles.

Others have lost their lives as parts of mountains break loose. One man, who was sitting on a boulder overlooking a Utah canyon, died in April 2022 when the canyon ledge collapsed beneath him.

But there have been some miraculous escapes. One man told Newsweek in 2021 how he survived a 100-foot fall when he was caught in an avalanche as he skied in South Lake Tahoe, California.