Calay News
Fernando Arias is one of the few lone and risky workers who monitor the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia, which is currently on high alert for a possible devastating eruption. As an electrician, he has been ensuring the proper functioning of the public media system, RTVC, for the last 15 years on a hill 6.3 kilometers from the mouth of the volcano, working in subzero temperatures in an apartment surrounded by giant antennas, living alone with only television screens and a radio for company.
Recently, the geological authority declared the volcano on an orange alert due to the increase in temperature at the crater, up to 700°C, and the earthquakes, almost two per second on March 30. Arias has a new task: taking a picture of the Ruiz every morning for the state media. Meanwhile, the soldier Héctor Trejos will have a maximum of seven minutes to alert thousands of people by radio and then flee to a bunker equipped with helmets, gas masks, and protective glasses in case of an eruption.
Trejos, a 35-year-old radio broadcaster, must inform more than 57,000 nearby peasants to evacuate, who have refused to leave their lands, animals, and crops, before the possible eruption. Other soldiers monitor wind movement on computers to anticipate the path of possible ashes. These soldiers are trying to avoid a repeat of the 1985 tragedy that killed 25,000 people, leaving only the ruins of Armero. The locals listen to the reports and instructions of the soldiers as they cook on stoves and wait, hoping that the mountain will stay calm.
