Guatemala Volcano Death Toll Up to 33, Expected to Rise

The charred landscape left behind by Guatemala’s erupting Volcano of Fire was still too hot in many places Monday to pull out bodies so thickly coated with ash that they looked like statues. First-responders in helicopters managed to pull at least 10 people alive from the ash drifts and mud as the death toll rose to 33 and was expected to go much higher.

Ash was piled up to the rooflines of some homes and rescuers used sledgehammers to break through the roofs of some completely buried houses to see if anyone was trapped inside.

Residents of El Rodeo, about 8 miles (12 kilometers) downslope from the crater, said they were caught unaware by the fast-moving hot ash and rock when the volcano west of Guatemala City exploded Sunday, sending towering clouds into the air.

Searing flows of ash mixed with water and debris gushed down the volcano’s flanks, blocking roads and burning homes.

Hilda Lopez said the volcanic mud swept into her village of San Miguel Los Lotes, just below the mountain’s flanks, and she didn’t know where her mother and sister were.

“We were at a party, celebrating the birth of a baby, when one of the neighbors 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.

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

At least 33…