Authorities were standing by ready to evacuate more people if necessary and were planning to distribute surgical masks that people could use to cover their noses and mouths.
Advertisement
The inhabitants of that small community on the side of the volcano, which straddles the western states of Colima and Jalisco, were taken to La Becerrera, a town three kilometers (1.9 miles) away, due to concerns about falling ash.
The Volcán de Colima, also known as Volcán de Fuego is part of the Colima Volcanic Complex (CVC) consisting of Volcán de Colima, Nevado de Colima (Spanish pronunciation: [ne’βado de ko’lima]) and the eroded “El Cantaro” (listed as extinct).
The activity at the Colima Volcano – also known as the “Volcano of Fire” – began Thursday, spewing ash more than 4 miles into the air and sending lava down its flanks.
More than 80 people left nearby communities after the volcano sent a four-kilometre column of ash skyward late on Friday. A new lava dome has started to grow and has been producing “explosions, glowing avalanches and pyroclastic flows”. One village near the volcano is covered in almost two inches of ash.
“They have all been evacuated”, said Luis Felipe Puente, national civil protection coordinator.
The preventive evacuation area was a radius of 12 kilometers around the crater, though no preventive evacuations were needed in the neighboring state of Jalisco.
Advertisement
Experts expect activity at the volcano to calm down in the coming days.
