ESCUINTLA, Guatemala -- A
long-simmering volcano exploded into a series of powerful eruptions
outside one of Guatemala's most famous tourist attractions on Thursday,
hurling thick clouds of ash nearly two miles (three kilometers) high,
spewing rivers of lava down its flanks and prompting evacuation orders
for more than 33,000 people from surrounding communities.
Guatemala's
head of emergency evacuations, Sergio Cabanas, said the evacuees were
ordered to leave some 17 villages around the Volcan del Fuego, which
sits about six miles southwest (16 kilometers) from the colonial city of
Antigua, home to 45,000 people. The ash was blowing south-southeast and
authorities said the tourist center of the country was not currently in
danger, although they expected the eruption to last for at least 12
more hours.
The agency said the volcano spewed
lava nearly 2,000 feet (600 meters) down slopes billowing with ash
around Acatenango, a 12,346-foot-high (3,763-meter-high) volcano whose
name translates as "Volcano of Fire."
"A
paroxysm of an eruption is taking place, a great volcanic eruption, with
strong explosions and columns of ash," said Gustavo Chicna, a
volcanologist with the National Institute of Seismology, Vulcanology,
Meteorology and Hydrology. He said cinders spewing from the volcano were
settling a half-inch thick in some places.
He
said extremely hot gases were also rolling down the sides of the
volcano, which was almost entirely wreathed in ash and smoke. The
emergency agency warned that flights through the area could be affected.
There
was a red alert, the highest level, south and southeast of the
mountain, where, Chicna said, "it's almost in total darkness."
He said ash was landing as far as 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of the volcano.
Teresa
Marroquin, disaster coordinator for the Guatemalan Red Cross, said the
organization had set up 10 emergency shelters and was sending hygiene
kits and water.
"There are lots of respiratory problems and eye problems," she said.
Many
of those living around the volcano are indigenous Kakchikeles people
who live in relatively poor and isolated communities, and authorities
said they expected to encounter difficulties in evacuating all the
affected people from the area.
Officials in
the Mexican state of Chiapas, on the border with Guatemala, said they
were monitoring the situation in case winds drove ash toward Mexico.
Associated Press