The Eruption of The San Salvador Volcano

It was a normal day on 7 June 1917. Everything seemed fine in the surroundings of the San Salvador volcano. A regular day with people walking or riding their horses to jobs. In those days, cars did not exist in El Salvador, and people needed to wake up really early if they wanted to reach any particular destination.

However, at 6:55 PM a powerful earthquake took El Salvador by surprise. It was so powerful that it was felt in several cities including Armenia, Ateos, Sacacoyo, and San Julián all of them in the south of the volcano. People started to panic and run for their lives.

Half an hour later, at 7:30 PM, a new earthquake in a new section shook El Salvador again. This one affected Apopa, Nejapa, Quezaltepeque, San Juan Opico, Santa Tecla, and San Salvador.

No one knew what was happening, some people believed it was the end of time. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ or maybe a punishment from the Almighty!

People all around these cities were trying to save their lives. The lucky ones had horses, but the majority could only run for their lives. The most catastrophic event happened just 41 minutes after the second earthquake, at 8:11 PM, the San Salvador volcano erupted with great force (figure 1). No one ever saw this coming.

Figure 1. San Salvador volcano.

The strong tremors, the smell of sulfur, the ash, and the loud rumbles became a nightmare for the thousands of residents of San Salvador, who, due to the darkness did not observe the magnitude of the tragedy. The north slope opened after a great blaze, throwing a shower of stones and reddened lava.

At 8:45 PM volcano mouths Los Chintos and El Tronador were opened and erupted incandescent lavas accompanied by loud rumbles and the emanation of gases.

Some people who lived next to the volcano tried fleeing toward Quezaltepeque. They were descending from the slopes of the volcano as fast as they could since they did not have a car or horses.

Suddenly, in the middle of their route, they were surprised by a man warning them that the lava was heading from the lower area to the top, so they turned back on their way.

A few minutes later the confusion returned when the same man yelled, “Here comes the lava!” So, they headed back to the lower area. However, a few minutes later, the same man warned them that the lava was coming from the bottom up.

Then one of the people questioned that man, who turned out to be a drunken man. That’s why he was giving misleading instructions.  People decided to pick him up since he was drunk, but he was not a bad person.

On their way, they met a Chinese man. They were uncommon in those days. He owned a very uncommon store. The people tried to persuade him to leave because the lava was coming and there was no time. He refused to evacuate, and they left him there with his store. No one knows what happened to him, maybe he survived maybe he died.

Finally, the survivors reached Quezaltepeque with the drunk man who kept yelling, “Here comes the lava!” Later, they even nicknamed him that way.

Days later, one of the survivors remembered that the Catholic Church celebrated Corpus Christ, the previous day. He was sad because he could not attend but wanted to see if he could recover some leftovers from the church where he used to attend. To his surprise, the church was still standing.

Everything happened miraculously because the lava that came down would have been divided before a cross that that church had in front and would have been rejoined later, leaving the construction only with the walls burned due to the extreme heat of the masses that passed at his sides. This was a symbol that revived the faith in many of these men.

Nowadays, no one is sure where this church or the cross was located because they no longer exist. Also, historical records indicate that of the nine thousand houses that were standing in the capital city, only 200 were left intact.

Inspired by La Prensa Grafica’s version.
Location: San Salvador Volcano, El Salvador

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