Volcanic eruption burns down homes in Indonesia, killing at least 10 people

MAUMERE, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia's national disaster management agency said Monday that at least 10 people had died as a series of volcanic eruptions spread across the remote island of Flores.

The eruption on Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki around midnight spewed thick brownish ash up to 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) into the air and hot ash hit several villages and burned homes, including a convent of Catholic nuns, said Firman Yosef, an official at the mountain Lewotobi Laki Laki Monitoring post on Lewotobi Laki Laki mountain.

He said volcanic material was thrown up to six kilometers (3.7 miles) from its crater, covering surrounding villages and towns with tons of volcanic debris and forcing residents to flee.

Rescuers were still searching for more bodies buried under collapsed houses, said Abdul Muhari, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency. Muhari said all the bodies, including a child, were found within a four-kilometer radius of the crater.

He said at least 10,000 people were affected by the outbreak in six villages in Wulanggitang district and four villages in Ile Bura district. Some have fled to relatives' homes as the local government prepares schools for use as emergency shelters.

The country's volcano monitoring agency raised the volcano's alert status to the highest level after midnight on Monday and doubled the exclusion zone to a seven-kilometer (4.3 mile) radius as eruptions became more frequent.

A nun in the village of Hokeng has died and another is missing, said Agusta Palma, the head of the Saint Gabriel Foundation, which oversees monasteries on the predominantly Catholic island.

“Our panicked nuns ran out into the darkness under a shower of volcanic ash,” Palma said.

Photos and videos shared on social media showed that in villages like Hokeng, tons of volcanic debris covered houses up to the roofs, where hot volcanic material set houses on fire.

Lewotobi Laki-laki is one of two stratovolcanoes in the East Flores District of East Nusa Tenggara Province, known locally as the “Husband” – “Laki-laki” means “man” – and the “Wife Mountains”. His partner is Lewotobi Perempuan or woman.

About 6,500 people were evacuated in January after Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupted, spewing thick clouds and forcing the government to close the island's Frans Seda Airport. No casualties or major damage were reported, but the airport has remained closed since then due to seismic activity.

In a video conference on Monday, Muhammad Wafid, the head of the geology agency at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said there was a difference in character between the January eruption and Monday's eruption because a magma blockage in the crater reduced detectable seismic pressure build up.

“The eruptions that occurred since Friday were due to the accumulation of hidden energy,” Wafid said.

It is the second volcanic eruption in Indonesia in just a few weeks. Mount Marapi in West Sumatra province, one of the country's most active volcanoes, erupted on October 27, spewing thick columns of ash at least three times and covering surrounding villages with debris, but no casualties were reported.

Lewotobi Laki-laki is one of the 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago of 280 million people. The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it lies on the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean. ___

Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta contributed to this report.