60 families evacuated after Kanlaon eruption
BACOLOD CITY—Sixty families were evacuated after Kanlaon Volcano erupted moderately for two minutes on Thursday afternoon, sending ashfall and a sulfuric odor across 50 barangays in nine local government units in Negros Occidental.
The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) said 195 individuals from Barangay Ilijan in Bago City and Barangay Araal in La Carlota City were moved to safety following the 4:39 p.m. eruption.
Barangay Araal, located near the volcano, was blanketed in ash, prompting residents to evacuate from the area, PDRRMO head Irene Bel Ploteña said.
Despite the eruption, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) opted not to raise Kanlaon’s alert status. The volcano remains under alert level 2.
Donato Sermeno III, director of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD)-Negros Island Region, said the OCD initially advised local officials to prepare for preemptive evacuations after Phivolcs indicated it might raise the alert level from 2 to 3.
No usual activities
However, the eruption lasted only two minutes and no unusual activity has been recorded since, prompting authorities to call off further preemptive evacuations.
The affected areas include Bago City, Pontevedra, La Castellana, La Carlota City, Moises Padilla, Hinigaran, Valladolid, San Enrique, and Binalbagan in Negros Occidental.
Classes at all levels were suspended on Friday in La Carlota City, La Castellana, and Moises Padilla in Negros Occidental, as well as in Canlaon City in Negros Oriental, Ploteña said.
Sermeno noted that 109 families previously living within Kanlaon’s 4-kilometer permanent danger zone in Canlaon City and La Castellana had already been evacuated last year and remain in designated evacuation sites.
He added that 22 families from geographically isolated areas in Bago City have also been staying in evacuation centers since last year.
“Let us pray Kanlaon does not erupt again,” Sermeno said.
“For now, there have not been any succeeding events at Kanlaon (since Thursday’s eruption), but we cannot discount the occurrence of further activities,” said Phivolcs resident volcanologist Mari Andylene Quintia of the Kanlaon Observatory in La Carlota City.
She noted that monitoring parameters have not shown significant increases, unlike during the 2024 eruptions when the alert level was raised to 3.
The volcano will remain under alert Level 2 unless monitoring data indicate heightened activity, she added.
Quintia said that during Thursday’s eruption, Kanlaon emitted ash, sulfur and possible ballistic projectiles that are not visible during daytime.
Phivolcs reported that the eruption generated a dark gray plume that rose about 2,000 meters above the crater before drifting southwest.
