Searching for survivors
A volunteer firefighter rescues a dog Tuesday from the disaster zone near Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire in Escuintla. As searchers combed the area for survivors, villagers began mourning the few victims who could be identified after Sunday’s surprise eruptions that killed at least 75 people.
EL RODEO, Guatemala — Residents of the villages skirting Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire have begun mourning the few dead who could be identified after an eruption killed dozens by engulfing them in waves of searing ash and mud.
Mourners cried over caskets lined up in a row in the main park of San Juan Alotenango on Monday evening before rescuers stopped their work for another night.
Two days after the eruption, the terrain was still too hot in many places for rescue crews to search.
By Tuesday afternoon, a new column of smoke was rising from the mountain, and Guatemala’s disaster agency said volcanic material was descending its south side, prompting an evacuation order and the closure of a nearby national highway.
On Tuesday, it was clear that the official death toll was sure to climb, and fears spread that anyone still stuck in the buried houses was dead and would remain entombed there.
Guatemala’s National Institute of Forensic Sciences raised the death toll Tuesday evening to 75. The institute said that 23 of those recovered bodies had been identified.
Sergio Cabanas, director of the disaster agency, said Tuesday night at a news conference that 192 people were listed as missing.