'No warning': Indonesian village caught off guard in volcano disaster

'NO TIME TO RUN'

An archipelago of 270 million sitting atop the Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth. The devastation wreaked by Semeru can be ascribed to a deadly confluence of factors, for which no one wants to take the blame.

The head of Indonesia's geological agency, Eko Budi Lelono, says messages were sent to local officials warning of hot ash clouds. The river near Curah Kobokan, he said, was marked red on the map.

"In the future, we can't blame one another, but we need to synergise more," Eko says.

Dino Adalananto of the East Java disaster mitigation agency says the warnings were passed on to local resilience officers but there were no specific orders to evacuate. The head of Curah Kobokan could not be reached.

Experts say the nature of the eruption, a cave-in of the lava dome possibly triggered by external factors such as heavy rain, was also difficult to catch ahead of time.

"Whatever the actual trigger was, it was the instability of this lava dome at the summit that collapsed and those things are very hard to predict," said Heather Handley, a volcano scientist at Australia's Monash University.

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Eruptions triggered by lava dome collapses account for about 6% of all volcanic eruptions, says Handley, with more research needed to understand the characteristics and causes.

Another causal factor for the tragedy is the reality of life on Semeru's slopes, where over the decades communities have become inured to volcanic activity, including the summit letting off steam.

As disaster officials survey the devastation, some 100,000 homes damaged or destroyed, there is growing talk about the danger of living so close to the mountain, with Indonesian President Joko Widodo saying at least 2,000 homes will be moved.

With 142 volcanoes, Indonesia has the largest population globally living in close range to a volcano, including 8.6 million within 10km (6.2 miles).

"What needs to be explained to people is the areas where the lava flows, our recommendation is don't live there anymore," said the geological agency's Eko.

"When they're there, there's no time to run."