Japanese Evacuate Small Island as Volcano Eruption Threatens Town

Thousands of people fled a small island 70 miles south of Tokyo on Friday after a volcano burst open, spewing rocks and flames and sending molten lava toward the island’s largest town.

Authorities ordered the evacuation of everyone on 35-square-mile Oshima. By this morning, 38 rescue ships had evacuated the 11,000 residents and an undetermined number of tourists, Tokyo police said.

The evacuees were taken to schools and welfare centers near Tokyo. About 300 scientists, police, firemen and power company officials stayed behind to monitor the volcano, authorities said.

There were no reports of injuries directly related to the eruptions, but an elderly man died of a heart attack en route to a rescue vessel, police said.

The volcano, Mt. Mihara, began rumbling last Saturday. Shortly after 4 p.m. Friday, it started spewing flames from several openings, including a 600-yard-long fissure on the side of the mountain.

The eruptions were accompanied by hundreds of earthquakes, some of them major tremors.

“There was a sudden blast and then another and in a matter of about 15 minutes, there were three (erupting areas). I didn’t know what was happening,” said Tsugufumi Matsumoto, an Associated Press photographer who was about 500 yards from the mountain.

Forest Fires

Molten lava flowed toward Motomachi, a town several miles west of Mt. Mihara, a police official said. The official said about 40 forest fires were reported.

The Japanese navy, the Maritime Safety Agency and the Tokai steamship company dispatched vessels to evacuate residents.

Japanese television interrupted regular programming for several hours to broadcast live footage of the eruption, showing bright orange flames spewing from a line along the mountain. Close-ups taken by a helicopter and an unmanned camera showed fountains of fire and explosive bursts of flames resembling fireworks shooting from several openings at once.

2-Mile-High Plume

Volcanic rock was hurled about 600 feet into the air, and the Central Meteorological Agency reported black smoke reached more than two miles high.

The Central Meteorological Agency reported more than 60 tremors an hour by mid-afternoon, including some measuring 6 on the Richter scale. A quake of that magnitude can cause severe damage.