Thousands flee volcano as Philippines raises level of alert over eruption risk
About 15,000 people have fled from villages around the Philippines’ most active volcano as lava flowed yesterday from a steam eruption that could turn explosive.
Lava rushed 500 metres down a gulley from the crater of Mount Mayon yesterday morning and ash clouds appeared halfway down the slope, said Renato Solidum, who leads the country’s volcano institute.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology increased the alert level for Mayon late on Sunday to three on a scale of five, indicating risk of a hazardous eruption “within weeks or even days”.
Molten rocks and lava at the crater lit the night sky in a reddish-orange glow despite the cloud cover, in a terrifying sight that sent thousands of residents rushing to shelters.
Disaster response officials said more than 14,700 people have been moved from highrisk areas in three cities and four towns.
“There are some who still resist but if we reach alert level four, we’ll really be obliged to resort to forced evacuation,” said Cedric Daep, an Albay emergency official.
Level four signifies the volcano could erupt within days.
Mount Mayon is in Albay province about 340 kilometres south-east of Manila. Three eruptions since Saturday have sent ash into nearby villages and may have dislodged solidified lava that was plugging up the crater, Mr Solidum said.
Lava last flowed out of Mayon in 2014 when 63,000 people fled from their homes.
“We think the lava now is more fluid than in 2014,” Mr Solidum said. “This means the flow can reach further down at a faster rate.
“We see similarity with eruptions where the first phase of the activity started with lava flow and culminated in an explosive part. That’s what we are trying to monitor, and help people to avoid.”
With its near-perfect cone, the mountain is popular with climbers and tourists but has erupted about 50 times in the past 500 years.
In 2013, an ash eruption killed five climbers, including three Germans, who had ventured near the summit despite warnings of possible danger.
Experts fear a major eruption could trigger pyroclastic flows, where superheated gas and volcanic debris race down the slopes, incinerating or vaporising everything in their path.
More extensive explosions of ash could drift towards nearby towns and cities, including Legazpi city, the provincial capital, about 15 kilometres away.
The institute on Sunday advised aircraft to stay away from the area around the volcano.
The glow in the crater signified the growth of a new lava dome so the evacuation zone should be enforced because of the dangers of falling rocks, landslides or the dome’s collapse, it said. “It is dangerous for families to stay in that radius and inhale ash,” said Claudio Yucot, head of the region’s office of civil defence. “Because of continuous rain in past weeks, debris deposited in the slopes of Mayon could lead to lava flows.
“If rain does not stop, it could be hazardous.”
Mayon’s first recorded eruption was in 1616. The most destructive eruption in 1814 killed 1,200 and buried the town of Cagsawa in mud.
The belfry of a Cagsawa church juts out of the ground in a reminder of the cone’s destructive potential, and has become a tourist attraction.