Guatemala’s Volcán de Fuego erupts

GUATEMALA CITY – Volcán de Fuego, located about 60 kilometers south of the capital, on Sunday spewed a column of ash up to a kilometer high, a government agency reported.

The National Volcanology Institute said in a release that the volcano, which rises 3,763 meters above sea level, erupted effusively, according to seismic recordings and images taken from a camera at the observatory at Panimache.

On Monday, officials from the Disaster Mitigation Network issued an orange alert, the second of a three-level alert system, due to the volcano’s activity, which presently consists of emissions of red-hot lava being hurled from the crater to a height of some 500 meters, the agency said.

Experts also said three rivers of lava were emerging from the crater and moving down the sides of the mountain. In addition, two emissions of ash rising from 800 to 1,000 meters (about 2,600 feet to 3,300 feet) were blowing southeast.