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Guatemalan authorities evacuated around a thousand people on Monday after Central America’s most active volcano erupted, spewing lava, ash and rocks.<\/p>\n
Residents with traumatic memories of a deadly eruption in 2018 sought refuge after the Fuego volcano — located 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the capital Guatemala City — showed escalating activity.<\/p>\n
“We heard the rumblings and then a strong eruption,” Manuel Cobox, 46, told AFP after leaving his home with his wife and three daughters.<\/p>\n
Some 125 families, around 900 people, were moved to safety from the community of El Porvenir, said Juan Laureano, a spokesman for Guatemala’s disaster coordination agency, Conred.<\/p>\n
Residents of another community in Las Lajitas were also evacuated, the official added.<\/p>\n
Buses brought evacuees carrying belongings to a town hall turned into a temporary shelter, while others stayed with friends or relatives.<\/p>\n
Around 30,000 people were potentially “at risk” and should evacuate themselves if necessary, Conred head Claudinne Ogaldes told a news conference.<\/p>\n
Guatemala lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity.<\/p>\n
In 2018, 215 people were killed and a similar number left missing when an eruption of the Fuego volcano sent rivers of lava pouring down its sides, devastating the village of San Miguel Los Lotes.<\/p>\n
On that occasion, residents “did not believe the magnitude and a tragedy struck,” said Cobox, who works on a pig farm.<\/p>\n
Amanda Santos, a 58-year-old housekeeper, said that memories of that previous eruption came flooding back when she heard the firefighters’ sirens.<\/p>\n
“That’s why we’re afraid. Many people died,” she added.<\/p>\n
Another eruption in 2023 from the 3,763-meter (12,346-foot) Fuego caused the evacuation of around 1,200 people.<\/p>\n
An alert was issued by the authorities on Sunday in order to coordinate the response and preventive measures, Conred said.<\/p>\n
The government suspended local school activities and closed a road through the village that links the south of the country to the colonial city of Antigua, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Guatemala’s most popular tourist destination.<\/p>\n
Authorities were monitoring pyroclastic flows — fast-moving currents of hot ash, gas and rock fragments that descend the slopes of a volcano, Conred spokesman Laureano said.<\/p>\n
The state-run Volcanology Institute recommended that air traffic take precautions due to a spreading ash cloud.<\/p>\n
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