250 evacuated as Volcano of Fire erupts in Guatemala

About 250 residents have been evacuated from the slopes of Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire as red-hot rock and ash flowed down the slopes toward an area devastated by a deadly 2018 eruption

Published - May 05, 2023 06:44 am IST - GUATEMALA CITY

A vehicle of the Guatemala’s disaster management agency (CONRED) blocks a road as the Fuego volcano spews a column of steam during an increase of its activity, in Alotenango, Guatemala on May 4, 2023. Photo: Guatemala Coordinadora Nacional para la Reduccion de Desastres (CONRED)/Handout via Reuters

A vehicle of the Guatemala’s disaster management agency (CONRED) blocks a road as the Fuego volcano spews a column of steam during an increase of its activity, in Alotenango, Guatemala on May 4, 2023. Photo: Guatemala Coordinadora Nacional para la Reduccion de Desastres (CONRED)/Handout via Reuters

About 250 residents were evacuated Thursday from the slopes of Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire as red-hot rock and ash flowed down the slopes toward an area devastated by a deadly 2018 eruption.

Firefighters said residents of the hamlet of Panimache were taken to shelters.

Guatemala’s disaster agency said the volcano had been emitting ash clouds that could affect as many as 100,000 people in communities around the peak.

The 12,300-foot (3,763-meter) high Volcano of Fire is one of the most active in Central America. The 2018 eruption killed 194 people and left another 234 missing.

The biggest danger from the volcano are lahars, a mixture of ash, rock, mud and debris, that can bury entire towns.

The disaster agency said that such lahars were flowing down four of the seven gullies on the volcano's flanks.

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