by Manila – A volcano briefly erupted in the central Philippines on Monday, sending a huge column of ash high into the sky as the government ordered the evacuation of surrounding villages. Located more than 8,000 feet above sea level on the central island of Negros, Kanlaon is one of 24 active volcanoes in the Philippines.
A nearly four-minute eruption Monday afternoon sent a 2.5-mile-high ash column across the crater and a deadly torrent of hot ash, gases and fragmented volcanic rock about 2 miles down the mountain’s southeast flank, officials said at a news conference. They warned that more explosive eruptions could follow soon.
“Being hit by these pyroclastic density currents is like being hit by a high-speed vehicle,” said Maria Antonia Bornas, head of volcano monitoring at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
A screenshot from a video shared by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology shows the eruption of Mt. Kanlaon volcano on December 9, 2024. / Photo credit: Philippine Information Agency/PHIVOLCS
“If the ash gets into the lungs, it would cause suffocation,” she said, calling on local authorities to evacuate 15 villages within six kilometers of the crater.
She said ash from the eruption rained down on several nearby towns around the volcano, although there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. She also warned that heavy rain could dislodge fresh volcanic sediment from the recent eruption and bury communities beneath.
“Evacuations are underway” in four high-mountain villages in the town of La Castellana on the volcano’s southwestern slope, municipal police officer Sergeant Ronel Arevalo told AFP, adding that he did not know the total number of residents to be evacuated. The Philippine government said in a statement posted on its official information agency’s website that an “urgent evacuation operation was underway in the area around the volcano, affecting approximately 87,000 residents.”
The Mt. Kanlaon volcano erupts in Negros Occidental province in the Philippines on December 9, 2024, in a picture shared on social media. / Photo credit: Dianne Paula Abendan/REUTERS
La Castellana resident Dianne Paula Abendan, 24, captured a video clip on her cell phone of a huge, cauliflower-shaped mass of gray smoke rising above the crater.
“In the last few days we have seen black smoke rising from the volcano. We were expecting it to erupt sometime this week,” she told AFP by telephone.
Abendan said people rushed home to await evacuation orders, but added that volcanic activity appeared to have subsided somewhat about an hour later.
Authorities said flights to and from Bacolod-Silay International Airport, the closest airport to the volcano, remained normal, but airlines were warned against flying near the volcano at an altitude of less than 10,000 feet.
“Airline operators are advised to avoid flying near the volcano due to the risk of sudden steam-driven or phreatic eruptions and premature magmatic activity,” said an official bulletin from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
In September, hundreds of residents were evacuated after the volcano spewed thousands of tons of harmful gases in a single day. The seismological office said Kanlaon has erupted more than 40 times since 1866.
In 1996, three hikers were killed by the volcano’s ash spewing.
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