In a hurry hundreds of residents were evacuated while the road was closed yesterday Thursday in Guatemala, as the Fuego volcano entered a phase of explosive activity.

The volcano is located a relatively short distance from the capital and is the most active in all of Central America, as announced by the Civil Protection.

“Irogenic flows are descending into canyons” on the slopes of the volcano’s cone, the national coordination agency for disasters (CONRED) said in a statement.

Due to the risks raised by these flows – suspensions consisting of irising gases, vaporized water, debris, molten rock with high temperatures, coming down the slopes “at great speed” – some 350 residents of nearby villages were evacuated from their homes, CONRED spokesman Rodolfo Garcia told AFP. Another 130,000 people may be at risk, he said.

The authorities arranged to open thirteen shelters, which have the capacity to host around 7,600 people, he added.

The column rising into the sky from the crater, consisting of gases and volcanic ash, “has reached a height of 6,000 meters above sea level and is moving in a west and southeast direction”, has traveled more than “50 kilometers” and caused ash rain in at least seven villages around the volcano, according to Civil Protection.

The authorities assure that they are closely monitoring the situation, as, according to the Institute of Volcanology of Guatemala (INSIVUMEH), hot clouds could reach a distance of up to six kilometers from the crater, while other “pyroclastic flows, weak, moderate and strong” they may erupt and travel long distances in “the next few hours”.

Volcan de Fuego (“volcano of fire”), whose crater reaches an altitude of 3,763 meters, is only 35 kilometers from the capital. The last time it entered a phase of explosive activity, in December 2022, Guatemala’s international airport had to be closed, as was a busy road between the tourist city of Antigua and the southern part of the country.

The police prohibited the crossing of the same road yesterday afternoon.

On June 3, 2018, a powerful volcanic eruption followed by the release of pyroclastic flows obliterated the community of San Miguel Los Lotes and part of the road to the nearby town of Alotenango. The official tally by the authorities was 215 dead, hundreds injured and many missing, some of whom were never found.

Besides Fuego, Guatemala has two other active volcanoes, Pacaya (south) and Santiago (west).