The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Death toll rises as bodies pulled from volcano ash
Disaster agency criticised for not warning residents sooner
Rescuers using heavy machinery and shovels have found the bodies of several more victims of an eruption at Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire, while 10 people were pulled alive from ash drifts and mud flows.
The official death toll stood at 62 but Associated Press journalists saw more burned and ash-covered bodies being unloaded after being dug out in the village of El Rodeo.
Sergio Cabanas, the head of the country’s disaster agency, said teams using helicopters had rescued 10 people from areas hit by thick ash, mud or lava.
Residents said they were caught unaware by fast-moving pyroclastic flows.
The volcano west of Guatemala City exploded on Sunday, sending towering clouds of ash miles into the air and hot flows of ash mixed with water and debris down its flanks, blocking roads and burning homes.
The charred landscape left behind was still too hot to touch or even to pull bodies from in many parts, melting the shoes of rescuers.
Workers told of finding bodies so thickly coated with ash they appeared to be statues.
Inhaling ash or hot volcanic gases can asphyxiate people quickly.
Hilda Lopez said the volcanic mud swept into her village of San Miguel Los Lotes, just below the mountain’s flanks.
She still does not know where her mother or her sister are.
“We were at a party, celebrating the birth of a baby, when one of the neighbours shouted at us to come out and see the lava that was coming,” Ms Lopez recalled.
“We didn’t believe it, and when we went out the hot mud was already coming down the street.”
“My mother was stuck there, she couldn’t get out,” said Ms Lopez.
Disaster agency spokesman David de Leon said 18 bodies had been found in San Miguel Los Lotes.
Ms Lopez’s husband, Joel Gonzalez, said his father had been unable to escape and was believed to be “buried back there, at the house”.
In the village of El Rodeo, heavily armed soldiers wearing blue masks to ward off the dust stood guard behind yellow tape cordoning off the scene as workers operated a backhoe.
A group of residents arrived at the scene with shovels and work boots.
Some locals said they never learned of the danger until it was upon them – and were critical of authorities.
“Conred (the disaster agency) never told us to leave. When the lava was already here they passed by in their pickup trucks telling us to leave, but the cars did not stop to pick up the people,” said Rafael Letran, a resident of El Rodeo.
“The government is good at stealing, but when it comes to helping people they lack spark.”