The eruption of Volcan de Fuego in Guatemala shut down the country’s main airport for a few hours on Sunday, authorities said.
The Fuego, 3,763 meters high and located about 35 kilometers from the capital Guatemala City, began a new eruptive phase on Saturday evening, accompanied by explosions, lava flows and ash projections, announced the National Institute of Volcanology. .
La Aurora International Airport in the Guatemalan capital was “temporarily” closed mid-morning, said the Directorate General of Civil Aeronautics in a statement, due to “the presence of ashes” near the track.
It resumed operations three hours later, around noon (1800 GMT), civil aeronautics director Francis Argueta said. “We decided to resume operations because a north to south wind” scattered the ashes, Argueta said in a video posted to social media.
Two diverted flights
The closure led to the diversion of at least two flights that were supposed to land in La Aurora, one from Miami (USA) and the other from Santo Domingo, and delayed the takeoff of other planes, according to aviation sources.
In addition, a highway linking the south and the center of the country was closed on Sunday due to the eruption of the Volcan de Fuego (literally: “Volcano of Fire”), the most active volcano in Central America.
The eruption maintains a “incandescent fountain” of lava more than 300 meters above the crater and a column of ash that rises more than two kilometers, according to the institute of volcanology, which also warned of new avalanches of burning material.
215 deaths in 2018
Civil protection has not ordered preventive evacuations but remains attentive, spokesman Rodolfo García told AFP.
On June 3, 2018, the Fuego caused an avalanche of burning material that swept through the town of San Miguel Los Lotes and covered part of a road, leaving 215 people dead and a similar number missing.
“With what happened in 2018, the authorities are more alert and more active”said José Sul, another resident of Alotenango.
Two other volcanoes are also active in Guatemala: Santiaguito (west) and Pacaya, 20 km south of the capital.