Jakarta , Indonesia ( CNN ) -- Indonesia 's Mount Merapi started spewing hot ash clouds Monday morning , sending a 1.5-kilometer plume toward the south . Volcanic ash also blew eastward toward Boyolali , Central Java , said Kurniadi of the Indonesian Volcanology and Geological Disaster Monitoring staff . Kurniadi goes by one name , as many Indonesians do . Residents on the volcano started fleeing yet again . Many had returned to their homes to check on them as well as their farm animals after eruptions last week . Mount Merapi began erupting Tuesday and has killed at least 39 people in the past week . Another 74 have been injured and more than 71,000 people have been evacuated , according to the National Disaster Management Board . The 3,000-meter Merapi is famously unpredictable . An eruption killed two people in 2006 and another killed more than 60 villagers in 1994 . About 1,300 people died when Merapi erupted in 1930 . Also last week , a 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia 's coast , triggering a tsunami and killing at least 449 . Hundreds more were injured .
NEW : Death toll from recent eruptions is now 39 . Mount Merapi spews hot ash clouds . Volcano has been erupting since 2004, and the last time it was active in 2006.