GUATEMALA’S Volcano of Fire could have further destruction in store after a fresh explosion fired a plume of ash 5000 metres into the sky.

The country’s seismology and vulcanology institute said volcanic activity is on the rise at Volcan de Fuego, which erupted on Sunday and sent lava spewing down its slopes into nearby villages.

Searing flows of lava, ash and rock have already caused chaos, having blocked roads, burned homes and endangered lives through asphyxiation-causing gases.

Authorities lifted the death toll from 70 to 75 after the most recent eruption on Tuesday, and it’s expected to rise dramatically. Emergency workers were still searching for bodies when the second eruption occurred.

The explosion prompted a fresh round of evacuation orders and set off a panic even in areas where the order does not apply.

It’s believed 1.7 million people have been affected by the eruption, and 200 remain missing, according to authorities.

VOLCANO DEVASTATES FAMILIES
People of the villages skirting Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire have begun mourning the few dead who could be identified after an eruption killed dozens by engulfing them in floods of searing ash and mud.

Mourners cried over caskets lined up in a row in the main park of San Juan Alotenango on Monday evening before rescuers stopped their work for another night.

Lilian Hernandez wept as she spoke the names of aunts, uncles, cousins, her grandmother and two great-grandchildren — 36 family members in all — missing and presumed dead in the explosion of Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire.

“My cousins Ingrid, Yomira, Paola, Jennifer, Michael, Andrea and Silvia, who was just two years old,” Ms Hernandez said.

There was no electricity in the hardest hit areas of Los Lotes and El Rodeo, so most searching continued only until sunset.

As dawn broke on Tuesday, the volcano continued to rattle, with what the country’s volcanology institute said were eight to 10 moderate eruptions per hour — vastly less intense than Sunday’s big blasts.

Guatemalan authorities previously put the death toll at 69, but officials said just 17 had been identified so far because the intense heat of the volcanic debris flows left most bodies unrecognisable.

“It is very difficult for us to identify them because some of the dead lost their features or their fingerprints” from the red-hot flows, said Fanuel Garcia, director of the National Institute of Forensic Sciences. “We are going to have to resort to other methods … and if possible take DNA samples to identify them.”

Authorities said at least 46 people were injured. Twelve shelters were housing 1877 people.

Sunday’s eruption caught residents of remote mountain hamlets off guard, with little or no time to flee to safety.

Using shovels and backhoes, emergency workers dug through the debris and mud, perilous labour on smouldering terrain still hot enough to melt shoe soles a day after the volcano exploded in a hail of ash, smoke and molten rock. Bodies were so thickly coated with ash that they looked like statues. Rescuers used sledgehammers to break through the roofs of houses buried in debris up to their rooflines to check for anyone trapped inside.

Hilda Lopez said her mother and sister were still missing after the slurry of hot gas, ash and rock roared into her village of San Miguel Los Lotes, just below the mountain’s flanks.

“We were at a party, celebrating the birth of a baby, when one of the neighbours shouted at us to come out and see the lava that was coming,” the distraught woman said. “We didn’t believe it, and when we went out the hot mud was already coming down the street.”

“My mother was stuck there, she couldn’t get out,” said Lopez, weeping and holding her face in her hands.

Her husband, Joel Gonzalez, said his father had also been unable to escape and was believed to be “buried back there, at the house.”

SUNDAY’S ERUPTION
The National Coordination for Disaster Reduction of Guatemala spokesman David de Leon said the volcano first erupted around midday Sunday, billowing smoke and ash miles into the sky. Then around 2pm, came a new, more powerful explosion.

Soon, searing flows of lava, ash and rock mixed with water and debris were gushing down the volcano’s flanks, blocking roads and burning homes. “It travelled much faster. It arrived in communities right when the evacuation alerts were being sent out,” de Leon said.

Authorities scrambled to issue an evacuation order. Some communities emptied out safely. But in places like Los Lotes and the village of El Rodeo, about 12 kilometres downslope from the crater, it was too late for many.

The fast-moving flows overtook people in homes and streets with temperatures reaching as high as 700 degrees Celsius, and hot ash and volcanic gases that can cause rapid asphyxiation.

“As soon as we received the information around 6am that the volcano was in an eruptive phase, the protocol was initiated to verify with different sectors and also talk to the communities, to community leaders,” De Leon said. “We had the information from our scientific service, and they told us the trend was that the activity was diminishing.”

In El Rodeo on Monday, heavily armed soldiers wearing blue masks to avoid breathing in ash stood guard behind yellow tape cordoning off the disaster scene. Helmeted workers carried bodies away on stretchers, and smoke was still rising from some parts of the ashen landscape strewn with boulders and other debris.

President Jimmy Morales travelled to survey the disaster area. Emergency crews in helicopters managed to pull at least 10 people alive from areas cut off by the flows. Conred said 3271 people had been evacuated.