In June 2023, more than 12,000 people living on its lower slopes were moved to evacuation centres to protect them from ash and toxic gases. The six-minute eruption prompted authorities to warn of possible ashfall and order evacuations within the volcano’s six-kilometre Permanent Danger Zone. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology confirmed in its bulletin that the 3,000-metre (nearly 10,000 feet) ash column gradually moved southwest onto nearby population centres.