On 15 October 1974, tremors woke up people in the settlements surrounding the Volcán de Fuego at 2:00 AM, followed by rumbling and cinders and ashes falling from the sky, which submerged the town into darkness for a few days. President Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García gave order to evacuate people, most of whom were sorry about losing all of their belongings after the eruption; in the meantime, ash was travelling as far away s the Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, to the point that Mexican authorities were on alert due to the amounts of it that they were getting.