PAHOA – Molten lava flowing from the Kilauea volcano in Hawai’i has stalled on its slow creep toward a Big Island shopping centre.

Officials had been worried that the lava spilling from Kilauea would hit the Pahoa Marketplace on or around Christmas, but civil defence administrator Darryl Oliveira said that the lava’s leading edge had “miraculously” stopped about 600 metres from the shopping centre, which has a supermarket, gas station and other stores.

A handful of restaurants and stores remained open till the last minute in defiance of the flow.

“I think the merchants are seeing some relief with this,” Oliveira said. “Hopefully this is an indication of a change in the flow.

“The lava front appears to have hardened and hasn’t advanced since Monday last week, but it’s unclear whether the molten rock has stopped or is just stalled,” Oliveira said.

A week ago, the lava was creeping forward at about 300 meters per day, the Hawai’i Tribune-Herald reported.

Several shops had closed down in advance of what seemed like impending disaster.

Owners of businesses in the island’s biggest shopping centre had been planning to evacuate employees and many had already started the process of clearing out stock.

The gas station had emptied its pumps of fuel and filled them with a mixture of water and firefighter foam, Big Island News reported.

The plan has been approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency and by the State Department of Health.

An earlier idea called for the gas station to put sand into the tanks, but this would not have removed all flammable vapours. It also would have destroyed the pumping system.

By using firefighting foam, the gas station may use the tanks again if lava bypasses the area and it wants to reopen.

Lava has never hit a gas station on the Big Island in the past, Oliveira said.

A hardware franchise had planned to close on Christmas eve. An empoyee told the Tribune-Herald that the store had given its workers jobs at other locations.

But then the lava halted.

“Somebody told me it’s a Christmas miracle,” said Becky Petersen, owner of Jungle Love, a fashion boutique in the shopping centre. “I don’t know what it is. I know it’s a real blessing.”

Petersen is hoping the stall means Pahoa will be spared, although she assumes the lava will start its ooze down the mountain again, even if it trickles along a different path.

“We’re hoping everybody can come back here and can have a life again,” she said, referring to the stores that closed. “This is the place where we eat. We get our supplies from the Marketplace. It serves the community, and without it we’re pretty lost.”

And while they now have been given a temporary reprieve, merchants at the shopping centre are still unsure about what the future in fact holds for them.

“I don’t want to leave Pahoa,” Jungle Love’s Petersen said. “Unless the flow takes the building, I will not give it up.”

Another part of Pahoa was spared in November when a different branch of the lava stalled instead of crossing a major road, which would have made it difficult for many residents to get out to the rest of the island.

But a new branch of lava about 300 yards upslope is still active, and could eventually surpass the stalled rock near the marketplace and become the new front, Oliveira said.

That upslope breakout is moving south of the current flow front so it may take a different path, he added.

The fact that the lava is still branching out upslope means the volcano is still very active, and only the tip of the lava has stalled, said Steven Brantley, a scientist from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Lava has been threatening Pahoa town, which has a population of about 900, for months.

In October, it burned a house and covered part of a cemetery but stalled just before hitting Pahoa’s main road.

This week, Hawai’i County Mayor Billy Kenoi invited President Obama to observe the lava flow on the Big Island, as the first family vacations on Oahu.

There was no immediate comment from the White House on whether Obama will take him up on the offer.