At least 21 dead after Mount Semeru volcano eruption in Indonesia

(CNN) – The death toll after Saturday’s eruption of the Semeru volcano rose to 21, the head of the task force for the management of the eruption of Mount Semeru, Infantry Colonel Irwan Surbekti, told CNN.

Sixteen of the victims have been identified, including two women and two children. Five others have yet to be identified, Surbekti said.

At least 54 people were injured and hospitalized, all with burns caused by hot lava and pyroclastic flows, a mixture of ash, rock and volcanic gases. Another 21 people are still missing.

Search and rescue operations have faced challenges over the past three days, such as the risk of pyroclastic flows and the fact that many areas remain hot after being covered by lava, making movements risky.

“We face challenges while conducting the evacuation operation, because hot ash clouds can hit us at any moment,” Surbekti said. He also said that lava continues to flow to lower ground.

At least 300 families were evacuated after the eruption, according to Indah Amperawati, deputy director of the Lumajang district, an area near the volcano.

In its statement Sunday, the BNPB said search and rescue efforts were ongoing, but did not specify the number of people they have reported missing.

Authorities say the situation on Mount Semeru remains dangerous due to the risk of pyroclastic flows, a mix of ash, rocks and volcanic gases that can be much more dangerous than lava.

“We recommend everyone to increase their alert because the threat potential of pyroclastic flows remains high. It can happen at any time without any warning,” the head of the Mount Semeru Observation Post, Liswanto, told CNN on Sunday.

Liswanto said Sunday that his team recorded two pyroclastic flow events. The first was at 5 am local time and the second at 10 am local time. The deadly volcanic material rolled into the village of Curah Kobokan, which was evacuated on Saturday.

They have urged people who live up to 10 kilometers away from the volcano to evacuate, as the pyroclastic flows “are very hot, the temperature can reach more than 1000 degrees Celsius,” Liswanto said.

Since there are no signals or methods to predict when the pyroclastic flow will occur, the phenomenon can be very dangerous, Liswanto said.

Evacuations in progress

A rescue volunteer in Indonesia’s Lumajang district told CNN on Sunday that he and his team evacuated the bodies of six miners from a river in the village of Curah Kobokan, where they were mining sand on the riverbank.

Some of the miners were still inside their vehicles, while others were discovered lying on the ground near the trucks, 32-year-old volunteer Muhammad Firman Adiguna Effasa said. It is not clear if those six deaths are part of the 14 deaths that authorities previously announced.

He added that he was concerned that there might still be more miners or other victims, but that they would not survive because the lava flood was so intense.

Authorities have transformed schools, mosques, town halls and village houses into evacuation centers, according to the statement.

Java is the largest population center in the huge Indonesian archipelago of islands and is home to the capital city of Jakarta. At more than 3,600 meters high, Mount Semeru is the tallest mountain in java.

Lumajang District Deputy Director Indah said most of the burn victims have been evacuated to the Penanggal Primary Health Center along with a resident who died in Curah Kobokan village.

Emergency services have been unable to reach several other villages because roads are blocked by mud and fallen trees, Indah said at the press conference.

The armed forces were called in for people and equipment to support the rescue efforts, Major General TNI Suharyanto, head of the BNPB, said at the press conference.

After arriving at the scene on Sunday, Suharyanton said that gathering information on the number of victims and displaced has been difficult, and that the exact number of victims and displaced is still unclear.

Budi Santosa, head of disaster management for the East Java province, said on Saturday that two sub-districts had been “badly affected” by the volcano’s eruption.

Volcanic ash and the smell of sulfur were first reported around 3 p.m. local time (3 a.m. Miami time), according to the Mount Semeru Volcano Observation Post. The station added that hot ash clouds were falling towards an East Javanese village, Sapitarang, in the Pronojiwo district.

Videos shared by government emergency response teams showed area residents fleeing huge, thick clouds of ash. Other images shared by locals showed people gathering at a local mosque in Besuk Kobokan as smoke covered the surrounding streets.

Santosa said at the press conference that he believed that health facilities in the disaster area, be it primary health centers or hospitals, could house the victims.

His team tries to carry out evacuations and set up refugee camps in the area, which would provide food, masks, blankets and shelter for displaced residents.

Indonesia sits between two continental plates in what is known as the Ring of Fire, a band around the Pacific Ocean basin that leads to high levels of tectonic and volcanic activity.