Former Dannevirke man Donald Snook photographed Fuego as it began to rumble

The Fuego volcano in Guatemala just a couple of weeks before erupting, sending molten ash and lava down its slopes.

"It won't erupt," guides told former Dannevirke man Donald Snook as he snapped photos of Fuego volcano in Guatemala last month.

Snook, a conservationist who now lives in Auckland, was on a six-country expedition through Central America when he went "birding" on an adjacent volcano.

The Fuego volcano in Guatemala just a couple of weeks before erupting, sending molten ash and lava down its slopes.

"I took this photo of Fuego from another mountain one morning when we were photographing birds," he said.

"It was strange as there was a huge boom after we saw this. Our bird guide, along with our armed security guard because of robbers on the mountain, wilder people we called them, were unfazed.

Donald Snook makes his way down a river in Central America.

"They said it happened all the time and it wasn't going to erupt, as it hadn't since the 1970s. We were overlooking this activity for a week as Fuego sent up plumes of smoke many times each day."

Volcan de Fuego, or Volcano of Fire, erupted on Sunday, spewing a 10km-long stream of red-hot lava and sending a thick plume of black smoke and ash over the countryside. So far there 75 people have died and 200 are reported missing.

• Coverage of Snook's Central America adventures in Saturday's edition of the Dannevirke News.