This article, about the Mount Saint Helens volcanic eruption near Washington in1980, states that even 500 miles away people were taken to hosipital suffering from sore eyes and skin rashes (Pague of Boils), there was darkness for hours over 500 miles from the volcano, fiery pumice fell like hail setting fire to things and destroying buildings, plants and animals and flattening crops, etc.....
About the Mount Saint Helens eruption...
'a hail storm of coarse pumice and rock fragments fell from the eruption cloud, blanketing the area near the volcano.' Source.
'Volcanic pumice and firey are commonly spewed from eruptions and can be felt hundreds of miles away such as with Mt St. Helens in the US.' Source.
Eye witness acount of Mount Saint Helens...
During the hike out, it started getting darker and I could hear thunder - very strange for a sunny morning. The trail is in the forest most of the way out so there are not many clear views. I started seeing flashes of pink lightning and hearing "hail" falling through the trees. By the time I reached my car, it was more like twilight, but I was able to see that the "hail" was actually 1/2 inch shards of obsidian. Now I knew that St Helens had erupted. After a short while, the obsidian "hail" changed to gray ash "snow" and the view of Mt Rainier to the north disappeared into the darkness created by the ash cloud.
Advice for future victims of plagues of hail.....
Protect yourself from pyroclastics. While you want to get to higher ground, you should also try to shield yourself from pyroclastics which are rocks and debris (sometimes red-hot) that are sent flying during an eruption. The most important thing to do is watch out for them and get out of their range. Sometimes they actually rain down, and in some types of eruptions, such as that which occurred at Mount St. Helens in 1980, these missiles can land miles from the volcano’s crater. Protect yourself by staying below the ridgelines of hills and on the side of the hill opposite the volcano. If you are caught in a hail of smaller pyroclastics, crouch down on the ground, facing away from the volcano, and protect your head with your arms, a backpack, or anything else you can find.
I've finally found the name for these little feiry hail stones.....Lapilli.
Rounded tephra balls are called "accretionary lapilli" if they consist of volcanic ash particles. Accretionary lapilli are formed in an eruption column or cloud by moisture or electrostatic forces, with the volcanic ash nucleating on some object and then accreting to it in layers before the accretionary lapillus falls from the cloud. Accretionary lapilli are like volcanic hailstones that form by the addition of concentric layers of moist ash around a central nucleus.
About Etna....
'Soon it became in many places theater furious explosions of deafening denotations and projections of columns of ash and lapilli fiery.'
On Versuvius...
'A mass of fiery lapilli and rain of ashes, covered men, houses and temples under a layer of 4 to 5 metres'On Exodus...
'Volcanic activity not only brings with it ash, but brimstone, and also alters the weather system, occasionally producing hail.'
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