Guatemala’s Fuego volcano eruption cools after over 700 evacuated

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By Sofia Menchu

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) -Guatemala’s Fuego volcano shot ash miles into the air on Friday as authorities said they had evacuated more than 700 people from their homes as a precaution, before declaring the eruption over after some 30 hours of intense activity.

Earlier in the day, seismology agency INSIVUMEH reported that a lava stream was building up around the crater of the volcano, which lies about 18 km (11 miles) from the central city of Antigua Guatemala, while some ash plumes reached around 5 km into the air.

Disaster agency CONRED said they had evacuated over 700 people as from the nearby areas of Escuintla, Sacatepequez and Chimaltenango as a precaution. Local families, many with small children, spent the night on green camping cots in nearby shelters.

Olga Lopez, who was evacuated from the town of El Porvenir, told Reuters she felt it was important to prioritize people’s safety.

“Sometimes when we grow up we can be stubborn and we don’t want to leave because of material things like our houses, but protecting our children’s lives is more important,” she said.

Activity at the volcano increased from Wednesday afternoon, but at midday (1800 GMT) on Friday, INSIVUMEH said it considered the eruption that began some 30 hours earlier to be over.

The agency said that as camera footage no longer showed spurting lava or pulsations in the ground, and as there were no longer large amounts of ash suspended in the atmosphere, “it is possible to consider the eruption that began June 4 has ended.”

This followed some 30 hours of smoke plumes, lava flows and a downward surge of pyroclastic flows, it added.

The Fuego volcano is known for its frequent activity. In June 2018, its most violent eruption in about four decades killed more than 200 people.

Around the size of the U.S. state of Tennessee, the Central American nation is home to 37 volcanoes, though many of them are considered dormant or extinct.

(Reporting by Sofia Menchu; Writing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Editing by Sarah Morland, Andrew Heavens and Alistair Bell)