Fuego's persistent low-level activity makes it one of Central America's most closely watched volcanoes. Andesite and basalt lava dominate its eruptions, and the small explosions that punctuate daily life are visible from Antigua's rooftop terraces - orange flashes against the night sky that have become a tourist draw rather than a deterrent. But the rhythm is deceptive. Larger eruptions arrive without proportional warning. In October 1974, a powerful eruption caused heavy agricultural losses and pyroclastic flows destroyed all vegetation surrounding the active cone. In September 2012, lava and ash forced the evacuation of roughly 33,000 people from nearly 17 villages. A May 2017 eruption generated shock waves and dense ash plumes that rose 1.3 kilometers above the crater and drifted more than 50 kilometers downwind. The volcano operates on two timescales simultaneously: the reassuring metronome of small puffs, and the irregular clock of catastrophe.

On June 3, 2018, Fuego produced its most powerful eruption since 1974. Massive pyroclastic flows - superheated avalanches of gas, ash, and rock that can travel faster than a person can run - filled the drainage ravines the locals call barrancas. On the eastern flank, the flows overwhelmed the Las Lajas ravine and descended on the communities of San Miguel Los Lotes and El Rodeo in Escuintla, along with the private La Reunion golf resort in Sacatepequez. The pyroclastic material buried Los Lotes entirely. Residents had received limited warnings to evacuate. At least 190 people died, more than 300 were injured, and 256 remained missing. Ash fell as far as Guatemala City, forcing the closure of La Aurora International Airport. Rescue workers struggled to reach the affected areas because the pyroclastic flows had destroyed the roads themselves. Children burned in the eruption were airlifted to Shriners Hospital in Texas for treatment.

Long before modern monitoring, Fuego drew adventurers willing to risk its slopes. In 1881, French writer Eugenio Dussaussay attempted to climb the volcano when it was still practically unexplored. He needed written permission from the Sacatepequez governor and a letter to the mayor of Alotenango requesting guides. Dussaussay wanted the central peak but could find no one willing to lead him there; he settled for the active cone, which had erupted just the year before. British archaeologist Alfred Percival Maudslay made his own ascent on January 7, 1892, leaving behind a written account of the climb. The earliest recorded eruption dates to 1581, documented by historian Domingo Juarros, though he noted the damage may have been earthquake-related. A 1932 eruption buried Antigua in ash. Each generation discovers what the Kaqchikel always knew: this mountain demands respect but offers no guarantees.

The communities surrounding Fuego face a calculus familiar to people who live near active volcanoes worldwide: the soil enriched by volcanic deposits makes the land productive, and the land is where families have lived for generations. After the 2018 disaster, Guatemala's disaster management agency CONRED improved its monitoring and evacuation protocols. Subsequent eruptions - November 2018, September 2021, March 2022, May 2023, and June 2025 - have prompted faster evacuations, though the scale varies. The November 2018 event moved approximately 4,000 people; the March 2022 eruption, which sent pyroclastic flows as far as 7 kilometers down several ravines, required evacuating about 500. Fuego remains one of the most active volcanoes in the Americas, and the question for surrounding communities is never whether the next eruption will come, but whether the warning will come first.