Volcano villagers ignore red alert dangers

Indonesia’s Mount Merapi belched out massive clouds of black smoke and sent lava flows shooting from its crater, but villagers ignored the dangers of an imminent eruption and returned to its slopes today to tend their animals and crops.

Even as the volcano’s activity increased, scores of curious onlookers travelled by motorcycle, car and foot to its slopes, eager to see from a safe distance the mountain’s awesome power.

Vulcanologists raised Merapi’s alert status to the highest level yesterday after it began spewing burning ash and rock, and thousands of women, children and the elderly were immediately shuttled by bus and trucks to emergency shelters.

Some men refused to leave late yesterday, saying they wanted to protect their homes, even as glowing magma from the volcano’s cauldron lit up the clouds surrounding the peak, nearly 3,000 meters (9,700) high, and as cascades of molten red stone tumbled down the mountainside.

Police manned roadblocks today preventing vehicles from getting within eight to 10 kilometres of the volcano’s crater, but allowed villagers to return to tend to land and animals, advising them to leave again by nightfall.

“My feeling is it will not blow at this time,” said Budi, a 30-year-old farmer, who came back to cut grass to give to his cows. Like many other Indonesians, he goes by only one name.

Others packed into emergency shelters – schools, government buildings and mosques – in nearby villages in densley populated Central Java province where they tried to get on with their lives.

“If it is safe, then we will go home,” said Selamat, 34, who was living with his four-year-old child in a government office transformed for 500 people. Women prepared breakfast in common kitchen and washed their children’s clothes.

“It’s OK at the moment,” Selamat said. “But if we have stay here for too long I can foresee it becoming a real pain.”

Merapi, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) east of the capital, Jakarta, came back to life in recent weeks after years of relative inactivity. Evacuations have been ongoing, but many people refused to leave behind precious livestock and crops.

The decision to raise the warning to its top level was taken “because there have been constant lava flows that cause hot gases,” said Bambang Dwiyanto, who heads the region’s volcanology centre.

Yesterday, experts recorded 27 volcanic tremors, said Dr. Ratdomo Purbo, who heads an observation post at Merapi.

Lava flows reached 1,500 meters (nearly a mile) down its slopes, he said, prompting hundreds to immediately leave their homes. Officials had said as many as 7,000 people still needed to leave, but it was unclear exactly how many remained.

Merapi is one of at least 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire” – a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.

It last erupted in 1994, sending out a searing cloud of gas that burned 60 people to death. About 1,300 people were killed when it erupted in 1930.