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More than 700 People Evacuated as Guatemala’s Fuego Volcano Spews Ash

Lava flows down from the crater of the "Volcan de Fuego," or Volcano of Fire, in San Juan Alotenango, Guatemala, Thursday, June 5, 2025. (AP)
Lava flows down from the crater of the "Volcan de Fuego," or Volcano of Fire, in San Juan Alotenango, Guatemala, Thursday, June 5, 2025. (AP)
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More than 700 People Evacuated as Guatemala’s Fuego Volcano Spews Ash

Lava flows down from the crater of the "Volcan de Fuego," or Volcano of Fire, in San Juan Alotenango, Guatemala, Thursday, June 5, 2025. (AP)
Lava flows down from the crater of the "Volcan de Fuego," or Volcano of Fire, in San Juan Alotenango, Guatemala, Thursday, June 5, 2025. (AP)

Guatemala's Fuego volcano shot ash miles into the air on Friday as authorities said they had evacuated more than 700 people from their homes as a precaution. 

A lava stream was building up around the crater of the volcano, which lies about 18 km (11 miles) from the central city of Antigua Guatemala, seismology agency INSIVUMEH said. 

Some ash plumes reached around 5 km into the air, it added 

Authorities have been warning of increased activity around the active volcano this week. 

"We have evacuated over 700 people who have spent the night in shelters. We evacuated them as a precaution," disaster agency CONRED said on Friday. 

People had been moved from the nearby areas of Escuintla, Sacatepequez and Chimaltenango, it added. 

In a report shortly after midnight on Friday, INSIVUMEH said a lava flow could be seen stretching to around 1.2 km. 

"This continues to accumulate in an unstable manner around the crater and in the high parts of the ravines, which could collapse and cause more pyroclastic flows," it said. 

Fuego is known for its frequent activity. In June 2018, its most violent eruption in about four decades killed more than 200 people. 

Around the size of the US state of Tennessee, the Central American nation is home to 37 volcanoes, though many of them are considered dormant or extinct. 

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Firefighters Battle a Wildfire Burning Out of Control on the Greek Island of Chios

A firefighting helicopter during firefighting operations on Chios Island, Greece, 24 June 2025. EPA/KOSTAS KOURGIAS
A firefighting helicopter during firefighting operations on Chios Island, Greece, 24 June 2025. EPA/KOSTAS KOURGIAS
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Firefighters Battle a Wildfire Burning Out of Control on the Greek Island of Chios

A firefighting helicopter during firefighting operations on Chios Island, Greece, 24 June 2025. EPA/KOSTAS KOURGIAS
A firefighting helicopter during firefighting operations on Chios Island, Greece, 24 June 2025. EPA/KOSTAS KOURGIAS

Hundreds of firefighters backed up by aircraft were battling a wildfire burning out of control for the third day on the eastern Aegean island of Chios Tuesday, with authorities issuing multiple evacuation orders.

Towering walls of flames tore through forest and agricultural land on the island, where authorities have declared a state of emergency and have sent firefighting reinforcements from Athens, the northern city of Thessaloniki and the nearby island of Lesbos, said the Associated Press.

By Tuesday morning, the fire department said 444 firefighters with 85 vehicles were tackling the blaze on scattered fronts. Eleven helicopters and two water-dropping planes were providing air support.

Emergency services have issued evacuation orders for villages and settlements in the area since Sunday, when fires broke out near the island’s main town. The fire department has sent an arson investigation team to Chios to examine the cause of the blaze.

“We are faced with simultaneous fires in multiple, geographically unconnected parts of the island — a pattern that cannot be considered coincidental,” Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Giannis Kefalogiannis said Monday from Chios. Authorities, he said, were “very seriously examining the possibility of an organized criminal act, in other words arson.”

The minister said police forces on the island had been reinforced, while military patrols had been doubled.

“Whoever thinks that they can play with the lives of citizens and cause chaos with premeditated actions will be led to court,” Kefalogiannis said. “Arson is a serious crime and will be dealt with as such.”

Wildfires are frequent in Greece during its hot, dry summers. In 2018, a massive fire swept through the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, trapping people in their homes and on roads as they tried to flee. More than 100 died, including some who drowned trying to swim away from the flames.