Town Sees Fire Fall From Sky, Then ‘Whole World Began to Scream’

Survivors of a volcanic eruption that sent an avalanche of mud and snow crashing through their homes early Thursday said the sky lit up with fireballs spewing from the snowcapped mountain.

Edeliberto Nieto, crying uncontrollably, told the Bogota radio chain IRCN that he lost his wife, mother and young daughter under the wall of mud that wiped out the town of Armero.

“I think it was past 11 o’clock last night (Wednesday) when we heard a frightening noise, and then a blast of wind hit us and we saw fire falling from the sky,” Nieto said.

“It was horrible, so horrible,” added Nieto, who suffered cuts in his face and arms. “My wife was killed. My mother was killed. My little girl who would have 4 years old tomorrow died. One of my sisters was killed and one of my little nephews.”

He said that there was so much fiery ash in the streets that “they burned my feet.”

Died Seeking Help

Armero’s mayor, Ramon Antonio Rodriguez, died in his house asking for help on the telephone, a civil defense spokesman said.

But many survived. Eduardo Alzate Garcia, governor of the state of Tolimo, which includes the town of Armero, said thousands of people saved themselves by climbing onto the roofs of their houses. Other people were spotted in trees.

Marina Franco de Huez said she ran from her home with her 10-year-old daughter.

“It all started around 6 o’clock last night with a shower of ash, but we were told it wasn’t anything serious, that it was a natural phenomenon and we stayed home,” she said.

“But at around 10 o’clock at night the ash rain increased and the whole world began to scream,” she said in an interview with IRCN radio. “I woke up my daughter and we ran out to one of the streets around the cemetery. We were able to stay out of danger until they rescued us.”

Everything Buried

She added: “More than half of the population was buried under a torrent of mud that came with a horrible noise. It dragged houses, cattle, tree stumps and gigantic rocks.

“There was no time for anything. The church was buried, the school, the theater.”

Maria Cadozo, who escaped Armero with her son in their sleeping clothes, said, “I heard an enormous roar, left and quickly saw the river was full of trees and mud.”

Jose Gaitan, a resident of Armero, said the River Lagunilla flooded “about 11 p.m. when ashes began covering the houses.”

“We heard the roar of the river and we took off on foot. A lot of people tried to leave on motorcycles or cars but they couldn’t because of the mud. We tried to reach the hills but it was impossible. Many of my relatives are missing,” he said.

Nieto said he saw the local radio station El Sol engulfed in flames.

“I saw it on fire, suddenly it was buried by the mud, but I think the people working there got away in their truck.” he said.

Sounded Like Locomotive

Another survivor, who was not identified during his interview with Todelar radio, said he awoke with water all around him.

“I heard a sound like a huge locomotive going at full steam, and then I felt water swirling around my neck,” he said.

Armero, a coffee-farming community in the Andes mountains, had a population of more than 25,000. It is 30 miles from the volcano and 105 miles northwest of Bogota, the Colombian capital.

“Armero doesn’t exist anymore,” Red Cross rescue worker Fernando Duque said in an interview from the scene on Todelar radio.

“Armero has disappeared,” Osberto Hernandez said in a radio interview. “There is only mud. The houses are buried under mud and people are buried under the mud. It was impossible to think. I turned and the town had disappeared. There was only mud, the smell of sulfur and steam.”

His mother, stepfather and sister were buried in that mud, Hernandez said.

Some Clung to Trees

A crop-dusting pilot, Fernando Rivera, flew over the devastated area and said the mud avalanche also destroyed the villages of Santuario, Carmelo and Pindalito, whose total population is about 20,000.

“Some survivors were clinging to trees they had climbed, some were on roofs that weren’t reached by the mud, and even some (were) in a cemetery that had a cement wall around it and that the mud did not knock down,” Rivera said.

Firefighter Chucho Melo, viewing the same area from ground level, said, “It looks like a bomb exploded. There are many deaths--too many deaths.”

“God, what have you done to us!” cried Armero resident Carmen Pantoja, who sought refuge in the town of Mariquita after her family was killed in the disaster.