Hector Guerrero / AFP - Getty Images
A massive fire is seen at 'La Primavera' forest in Guadalajara, Mexico, April 25. More than 700 firefighters were sent to the site where the fire has been burning uncontrolled for almost five days.
Nearly 10,000 acres have burned in the forest preserve in the past five days. The cause of the fire is unknown, though there is speculation that it started at an illegal garbage dump. The International Business Times reports that authorities have previously found outdoor drug labs in Jalisco's forests. The Latin American Herald Tribune reported that gunmen were preventing some firefighting teams from reaching the fire.
See another photo from the fire posted previously on PhotoBlog.
Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP - Getty Images
Incandescent materials, ash and smoke are spewed from the Popocatepetl volcano, seen from Santiago Xalitzintla, in the Mexican central state of Puebla, on April 24. Residents at the foot of Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano no longer sleep soundly since the towering mountain roared back into action over a week ago, spewing out a hail of rocks, steam and ashes. The volcano, Mexico's second highest peak at 5,452 metres, started rumbling and spurting high clouds of ash and steam on April 13, provoking the authorities to raise the alert to level five on a seven-point scale.
More photos of the Popocatepetl volcano on PhotoBlog.
Ulises Ruiz Basurto / EPA
A forest fire burns in Guadalajara, Mexico, in the early hours of April 24. The fire, which began on April 21, has affected 3500 acres of forest is now threatening Guadalajara's urban area.
Marco Ugarte / AP
A plume of ash and steam rise from the Popocatepetl volcano overshadowing the Catholic church 'Nuestra Señora de los Remedios' or 'Our Lady of Remedies' in Cholula, Mexico, April 22.
Popo, as the volcano is commonly known, has put out small eruptions of ash almost daily since a round of eruptive activity began in 1994. A week ago, the eruptions started growing larger.
From OurAmazingPlanet staff:
Mexico's Popocatépetl volcano, which lies only about 40 miles away from Mexico City, dusted nearby areas with ash this week in one of its largest explosions in recent years. The eruption, combined with a billowing plume of steam and ash and increased seismic activity, has prompted authorities to raise the volcano's alert status and advise people to stay at least seven miles away from the summit.
The eruption covered about 30 communities with ash, ranging from a light dusting to up to 7 centimeters (2.8 inches), according to Wired's Eruptions Blog.
Jose Casta-ares / AFP - Getty Images
Ash and smoke are spewed from Popocatepetl Volcano as seen from the city of Puebla, in the Mexican central state of Puebla, on April 18. Residents of nearby communities reported roaring noises from the Popocatepetl volcano near Mexico City on Tuesday after signs of increased activity prompted authorities to raise alert levels.
Imelda Medina / Reuters
A boy helps another adjust his surgical mask, which were handed out by the Red Cross, in San Nicolas de los Ranchos April 17. A powerful plume of steam and ash rose from the Popocatepetl volcano in central Mexico on Tuesday, prompting local schools to cancel classes and emergency teams to prepare for evacuations. Mexico's National Center for Disaster Prevention raised the alert level for the 5,450-meter (17,900-foot) Popocatepetl, which lies some 50 miles to the southeast of Mexico City, late on Monday.
Francisco Guasco / EPA
View of a shelter in Santiago Xalitzintla, in the Mexican state of Puebla, prepared due to an alert status phase three issued by the National Center for Prevention of Disasters on April 17. According to the National Center for Prevention of Disasters, the volcano Popocatepetl has spewed some ash emissions and sproadic explosions of low and moderate level.
Imelda Medina / Reuters
The Popocatepetl volcano spews a cloud of ash and steam high into the air, as seen from San Nicolas de los Ranchos, on the outskirts of Puebla April 18. A powerful plume of steam and ash rose from the Popocatepetl volcano in central Mexico on Tuesday, prompting local schools to cancel classes and emergency teams to prepare for evacuations. Mexico's National Center for Disaster Prevention raised the alert level for the 5,450-meter (17,900-foot) Popocatepetl, which lies some 50 miles to the southeast of Mexico City, late on Monday.
From Reuters: SAN PEDRO BENITO JUAREZ, Mexico — A powerful plume of steam and ash rose from the Popocatepetl volcano in central Mexico on Tuesday, prompting local schools to cancel classes and emergency teams to prepare for evacuations.
The volcano's lava dome started to expand on Friday, suggesting fresh magma may be pushing upwards. It spewed red-hot fragments and lightly dusted cars and streets in some small towns in the state of Puebla, television images showed.
Popocatepetl, which lies some 50 miles to the southeast of Mexico
City , pumped out a cloud of hot air and particles in an emission lasting about 20 minutes on Tuesday. "It sounded like a loud cauldron releasing steam," said Reuters cameraman Roberto Ramirez.
For the latest on the Popocatepetl volcano click here.
Francisco Guasco / EPA
A smoke cloud from the Popocatepetl volcano is seen from the town of San Andres Cholula, Mexico, on April 16, 2012. The volcano has been emitting gas and water vapor between 500 and 1000 meters in height according to a report from the National Center for Disaster Prevention.
Reuters reports — Mexican authorities raised the alert level for the Popocatepetl volcano near to Mexico City on Monday after it started spewing red-hot fragments of rock.
The lava dome of Popocatepetl, some 50 miles to the southeast of the capital, started to expand on Friday, Mexico's National Center for Disaster Prevention said.
This change in activity in the 5,450 meter (17,900 foot) volcano could provoke big explosions capable of sending incandescent fragments out over considerable distances, as well as ash showers, the center said in a statement. Read more.
Yuri Cortez / AFP - Getty Images
Wearing a large brim traditional Mexican hat, Pope Benedict XVI waves at the crowd upon arriving at Bicentennial Park in Silao, Guanajuato State, Mexico on March 25.
Dario Lopez-Mills / AP
Pilgrims cheer and sing as they wait at the site where Pope Benedict XVI will give a Mass in Bicentennial Park near Silao, Mexico.
Pope Benedict XVI rode in the popemobile through an enthusiastic crowd in Silao, Mexico en route to the Mass at Bicentennial Park. One person handed the pope a broad-brimmed Mexican sombrero that he wore on his way to the altar at the sun-drenched park.
Many Mexicans said they were surprised by the warmth of Benedict, whose image is more reserved and academic than his popular predecessor, John Paul II, who was dubbed "Mexico's pope."
Related links:
--Msnbc.com wire services contributed to this post
Alberto Pizzoli / AFP - Getty Images
Pope Benedict XVI is helped with a large brim traditional Mexican hat, as a crowd greetes him on his arrival at Bicentennial Park in Silao, Mexico.
Alexandre Meneghini / AP
People walk past a street artist dressed as a magician performing for money by a church in the main square in Leon, Mexico, on March 22, 2012. Leon's Metropolitan Park has been prepared for more than 100,000 campers in anticipation of the Pope's visit.
The Associated Press reports — Pope Benedict XVI will arrive in Mexico Friday, a decade after his predecessor's last visit, to a very different country and a church that has suffered debilitating setbacks amidst sex abuse scandals and a lower percentage of Mexicans who call themselves Catholic today, compared to a decade ago.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
Relatives mourn over the coffin of Guatemalan citizen Elmer Constantino Castro Andres at an Air Force base in Guatemala City on March 21, 2012.
The bodies of 11 Guatemalan citizens were repatriated from Mexico on Wednesday, The Associated Press reports. They were part of a group of 72 migrants from South and Central America who were killed by the Zetas drug cartel in August 2010 in the northeastern Mexico town of San Fernando, according to the Mexican authorities.
Luis Alberto Cruz Hernandez / AP
Members of a family sleep outside their home in fear that aftershocks from Tuesday's magnitude 7.4 earthquake could cause their home to collapse in Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca, near the Guerrero border on March 21.
Henry Romero / Reuters
A boy carries books inside his earthquake damaged classroom at Francisco Larrayo's School in the village of Paso Cuaulote, Guerrero on March 21. The 7.4 magnitude quake hit Guerrero hardest where more than 800 houses were damaged.
Henry Romero / Reuters
Medical personnel attend to a patients that were evacuated from a hospital damaged by the earthquake in Ometepec, Guerrero on March 21.
A powerful and prolonged earthquake rocked Mexico on Tuesday, toppling houses near the epicenter in the south, cracking building facades in Mexico City and briefly terrifying a population well schooled in natural disasters.
The brunt of the shaking apparently was taken by the southern states of Guerrero and Oaxaca, near whose shared border the epicenter of the quake was pinpointed 12 miles below the surface.
--Msnbc.com wire services contributed to this post
Related links:
Jacinto Kanek / EPA
Local and foreign visitors gather before the Kukulkan Pyramid during the celebration of the Spring Equinox in Chichen Itza, Mexico, March, 20 2012.
EPA reports: Hundreds of people gather to observe the descent to earth of a serpent shaped with the shadow of one edge of the pyramid, during the beginning of the Spring equinox, that in ancient times is said to have indicated to Mayans the timing of the sowing season.
Julio Cesar Aguilar / AFP - Getty Images
A believer asking "Nino Fidencio" for a miracle is helped to submerge in the mud at "El Pozito" in El Espinazo, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon state, on March 19. Thousands of believers took part in a procession along the town of El Espinazo to ask for miracles to "Nino Fidencio", a famous Mexican 'curandero' (folk healer), whose spirit still heals people, according to the legend. Niño Fidencio, well known for performing painless operations without anaesthesia, died in 1938.
Julio Cesar Aguilar / AFP - Getty Images
A believer emerges from the mud.
Julio Cesar Aguilar / AFP - Getty Images
A believer asking "Nino Fidencio" for a miracle is helped to submerge in the mud at "El Pozito" in El Espinazo, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon state, Mexico on March 19. Thousands of believers took part in a procession along the town of El Espinazo to ask for miracles to "Nino Fidencio", a famous Mexican 'curandero' (folk healer), whose spirit still heals people, according to the legend. Niño Fidencio, well known for performing painless operations without anaesthesia, died in 1938.
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