Volcano Eruption: Merapi’s Biggest Blast Yet?

VOLCANO ERUPTION: An ash covered victim of Mount Merapi eruption arrives at a hospital in Yogyakarta on Nov. 5. (Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP/Getty Images)

Mount Merapi erupted again this morning, Friday Nov. 5, sending a deadly cloud of hot gases and ash down the crater’s slopes, which killed at least 49 people and inflicted serious burns on 66, CNN reported.

Villages as far as 18 kilometers away from the volcano were affected, including Bronggang and Argomulyo.

“Argomulyo village has been burned down to the ground by the heat clouds,” Teguh Dwi Santosa, a police force medic from Yogyakarta, told AFP. “Many children have died there. When I was in the village the ground was still hot.”

Dozens of victims are being treated for burns and respiratory problems from the volcanic ash, hospital sources told AFP. Surono, a government vulcanologist, says this is the volcano’s biggest blast yet.

“This is the biggest eruption so far,” Surono said, according to ABC News. “The heat clouds went down the slopes as far as 13 kilometers and the explosion was heard as far as 20 kilometers away.”

“We have no idea what to expect now,” the expert said, adding that he has never seen the needle on Merapi’s seismograph working with such intensity, ABC News reported.

He said the exclusion zone has been widened from 15 to 20 kilometers around the mountain, and everyone in the area has been ordered to evacuate immediately, even staff at the mountain’s main monitoring post.

This new explosion sent giant white clouds 20,000ft (6,000m) into the air with the wind later taking the ash to the west where it coated trees and roofs as far as 150 miles away (250km), Sky News reported.

Since Merapi or ‘Fire Mountain’ came back to life on Oct. 26, a series of powerful eruptions have ensued with this latest one bringing the death toll to 93, according to CNN.