Wickners in the Philippines are making thousands of folk drop everything and flee their homes after the Taal resting firebarrow spewed a cloud of smoke and steam half a mile high.

The Taal firebarrow sits on a lovely bowl lake about 40 miles south of Manila. Over the last few days the skies over Manila and nearby towns have been darkening from the ash and smoke flooding out of Taal.

The earthlore and firebarrowlore guilds said the firebarrow watch was raised to 3 out of 5, meaning molten stone was coming up in the main bowl of the firebarrow, which could lead to it blowing up even more.

Standing about 1000 feet high, Taal is one of the worlds smallest living firebarrows. Though it is small, it can still be very deadly, like when it blew up in 1911 and killed over 1300 folk.

In January of last year, Taal shot ash almost 10 miles into the sky, burning many homes with molten earth, and shutting down all flights overhead. Wickners warned that if Taal blows up this time, it could be even worse than last year.