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illagers in Sumberejo, Batur district, Banjarnegara, Central Java have been warned about the increasing activity of the Timbang Crater, after the alert level was increased to the second highest level.

On March 27, the level was increased from Waspada to Siaga level. Previously, on March 11, the status was increased from Normal to Waspada level.

Siaga is the second highest level in a four-level system of alerts.

The Timbang Crater, located on the Dieng tourism plateau, experienced an increase in volcanic activity and emitted more carbon dioxide (CO2) gas on March 11.

“The Banjarnegara regency administration has prepared two evacuation points in Batur Village Hall and in Pasurenan that can accommodate 1,270 refugees,” Andri Sulistyo of the Banjarnegara Disaster Mitigation Agency’s (BPBD) Dieng monitoring post told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday evening.

The BPBD had also prepared the required logistics although there were no residents being evacuated, he added. “The residents are calm as they see poisonous smoke only arising from Timbang Crater in the early morning,” he said.

“The residents know the natural conditions in their surroundings, but we keep asking them to be alert and heed the no-entry zone at a radius of 1-kilometer from the crater.”

Sumberejo, the nearest village to Timbang Crater, has a population of 4,700 people and local residents have often smelt sulphur.

The Banjarnegara BPBD has distributed masks to the villagers as a precaution.

In 1979, poisonous gas from Sinila Crater, also on the Dieng Plateau, killed 149 residents.

Meanwhile, Banjarnegara BPBD executive director Tursiman said that some farmers were stubbornly entering the dangerous zone to tend to their farms.

“The farmers evade monitoring by using other routes encircling the danger zone,” he said.

He added that the farmers believed they had better knowledge of their surroundings as they were born and had lived there for years.

“Especially since they know that the poisonous gas only rises in the mornings and afternoons,” he said.

Tursiman said he had asked residents to keep alert, especially over cracks in the ground caused by frequent tremors in the area.