At least 330 people were evacuated on Thursday in Guatemala following an eruption of the Fuego volcano, located 35 km from the capital, according to the civil protection agency, which declared an orange alert. The volcano, considered the most active in Central America, caused a deadly avalanche on June 3, 2018, that wiped out a community, leaving 215 dead and a similar number missing.
“Preventive evacuations are underway” due to the eruption that began Wednesday night, said Juan Laureano, spokesperson for the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (Conred), the agency in charge of civil protection. He explained that 159 people from the villages of Panimaché I and Morelia, located on the western flank of the volcano, were evacuated to a gymnasium in the municipality of Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa.
Another 141 residents from two villages and employees of a golf course in San Juan Alotenango, on the eastern side of the volcano, were relocated to a shelter set up in that town. Videos released by Conred showed several villagers, including children, boarding buses amid falling rain and ash.
Images captured by a photographer from the town of Escuintla showed a plume of smoke and ash rising more than 5,000 meters, according to the Volcanology Institute. The Institute also warned of flows of scorching material—known as pyroclastic flows—descending the slopes.
Before the increase in activity, the volcano had shown “normal parameters” with “weak to moderate explosions.” Its last eruption was in March, prompting the temporary evacuation of around 1,000 people, the Institute recalled. Authorities have temporarily closed a road that runs along the volcano and connects southern Guatemala with the colonial city of Antigua, a major tourist attraction and UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.
The 3,763-meter-high volcano, located at the junction of the Escuintla, Chimaltenango, and Sacatepéquez provinces, is one of Guatemala’s three active volcanoes, along with Pacaya (south) and Santiaguito (west). In 1932, an eruption of Fuego sent ash as far as El Salvador (125 km away) and Honduras (175 km away).
