T

he recent eruption of Mount Sinabung in Karo regency, North Sumatra, has sparked widespread panic and left villages in five districts covered with volcanic ash.

Sinabung spewed volcanic matter as high as 5,000 meters into the air on Monday morning, while pyroclastic flows reached as far as 4.9 kilometers south of the volcano.

Pelin Depari, a resident of Gurukinayan village in Payung, one of the five districts coated in ash, said that even though he was accustomed to eruptions, this time he had panicked.

“It has been a while since we saw debris and gravel falling from the sky during an eruption,” Pelin said on Monday.

The incident lasted for about an hour in some areas of Payung and the four other affected districts, Simpang Empat, Naman Teran, Tiga Nderket and Munthe.

A team from the Karo Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), with the help of local authorities, was deployed to mitigate the disaster and clear the affected villages from volcanic ash.

No casualties were reported in the incident, nor were additional evacuees recorded, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

“The immediate needs [of residents] include [face] masks,” BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a written statement.

Mt. Sinabung had erupted several times with varying intensity last month, but Monday’s eruption was described by the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center (PVMBG) as the largest in the past two years.

“There is still a possibility of another eruption as a result of the lava domes, which are still substantial,” said Armen Putra, who heads the PVMBG’s observation post at Mt. Sinabung.

The PVMBG predicted last month that Mt. Sinabung was likely to continue to erupt throughout 2018, given the growth of the volcano’s lava domes. It has also warned of a large eruption this year.

Mt. Sinabung, which is 2,460 meters high, has claimed the lives of more than 20 people since its first eruption in recent times in 2010, including a six-year old girl killed in a cold lava flood that hit a village in Karo last year.

On Monday, the BNPB once again reminded people living near rivers fed by water flowing from the mountain, including the Laborus River, to exercise caution amid the possibility of cold lava floods. Meanwhile, locals and tourists are barred from entering Sinabung’s danger zone.

The BNPB has deployed a team to assist the Karo BPBD in mitigating Monday’s eruption, which the agency deemed the biggest eruption this year, unlike the claim by the PVMBG.

“By Monday noon, people returned to their daily activities,” said Sutopo.

In late December, Mt. Sinabung released volcanic ash as far as 3,500 m to the east-southeast and 4,600 m to the south-southeast, making it the biggest eruption last year, with volcanic ash falling on several villages to the east of the volcano.

The volcano first erupted in August 2010 after being dormant for more than 400 years, affecting not only the daily lives of the people living around the mountain, but also tourism in the regency of Karo.

However, the repeated eruptions have not deterred people living there from seizing its tourism potential.

Late last year, the regency organized an international jazz festival dubbed Sinabung Karo Jazz 2017. The region has also announced plans to build a museum dedicated to Mt. Sinabung as a reminder to the nation and coming generations that the volcano has been erupting for years.