reaching a distance of 2.5 km east of the lava dome on the 26th, and 3.0 km on the 29th. On the 26th when the tip of a pyroclastic flow approached from the nearest private houses, Shimabara City issued an evacuation recommendation for Kita-Kamikoba town, Minami-Kamikoba town, Shirataki town, Tenjin Motomachi, and Fudan Motomachi – all located in the Mizunashi River basin. The evacuation recommendation was carried out without trouble. In order to capture the pyroclastic flow activity on film, the mass media chose a select spot within the evacuation advisory area. This spot was away from the lava dome, away from the Mizunashi River (where debris flows were frequent), and high. This shooting spot was located on the prefectural road in the village of Kita-Kamikoba, and was favored by the media because they were able to view Fugen-dake directly in front of them. The nickname "fixed point" was established. After the first pyroclastic flow on the 24th, more than a dozen media members were lined up at the "fixed point". In 1991, the media had started to use color photographs on the paper, and with the Fugen-dake disaster becoming an ongoing topic of coverage, the companies started competing for color photographs. The competition became even more intense as the Mainichi Shimbun succeeded in shooting nightly pyroclastic flows on May 28. The fact that pyroclastic flows were being recorded in clear images for the first time attracted a great deal of attention from all over the world, and many volcanologists and government officials entered the evacuation advisory area for interviews and photography. On May 28, the Ministry of Construction (at that time officials of the Public Works Research Institute) released a picture taken when entering the path of previous pyroclastic flows below the lava dome, and another group on the afternoon of June 1 or 2. After entering the tip of the deposit path, they surveyed the site for about an hour, photographed the pattern and released it. In addition, many visitors had begun to gather around Unzendake to see the plumes. In particular, since June 2 was Sunday, many visitors from other prefectures gathered around the Mizunashi River and observed the pyroclastic flows with binoculars and photographed them with video cameras. Traffic became heavy as a result. However, on May 26, reporters from the Asahi Shimbun were warned that it was likely for them to be engulfed by the