MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia — A surge of searing gas raced down the sides of Mount Merapi on Friday, smothering houses, cattle and villagers in its path.
Soldiers pulled at least 78 bodies from homes and streets blanketed by ash up to a foot deep, raising the overall toll from the volcano’s explosions to 122, according to the National Disaster Management Agency.
Heat of 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit fused clothes, blankets and even mattresses to people’s skin.
The worst-hit village, Bronggang, lay 9 miles from the fiery crater, just on the perimeter of the government-delineated “danger zone.” Crumpled roofs, charred carcasses of cattle and broken chairs — all layered in white ash and soot — dotted the smoldering landscape.
The zone has since been expanded to a ring 12 miles from the peak, bringing it to the edge of the ancient royal capital of Yogyakarta, which has been put on its highest alert.
Sri Sucirathasri said her family had stayed in their Bronggang home Thursday night because they hadn’t been told to leave.
They awoke in the dark as the mountain let out thunderous claps, and they tried to outrun the flows, which reached speeds of 60 mph, on a motorbike. Her mother, father and 12-year-old sister, Prisca, left first, but with gray ash blocking out any light, they mistakenly drove into — rather than away from — the volcano’s dangerous discharge.
The 18-year-old Sri went looking for them when she heard her mother’s screams, leaving at home an older sister, who died when the house became engulfed in flames.
“It was a safe place. There were no signs to evacuate,” said Sri, a vacant gaze fixed on Prisca, whose neck and face were burned a shiny ebony, her features nearly melted away.
Their mother was missing. Their father, whose feet and ankles are burned, was being treated in another ward.
“I don’t know what to say,” she whispered when asked whether she blames officials for not warning the family. “Angry at who? I’m just sad. And very sick.”
Merapi’s latest round of eruptions began Oct. 26, followed by more than a dozen other powerful blasts and thousands of tremors.
Numbers
– 122 Death toll in Mount Merapi’s latest round of eruptions, which began Oct. 26
– 1.76 billion Cubic feet of volcanic material released Friday, making the blast Merapi’s “biggest in at least a century.”
– 1,400 degrees Temperature of an explosion just after midnight Friday
