LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines - Thousands of evacuees spent Christmas Day in temporary shelters in the shadow of Mount Mayon in the Philippines on Friday, as the volcano continued to spew ash and molten lava.

More than 47,000 people have fled their homes to seek refuge in crowded camps at a safe distance from the scalding ash and rocks, with experts warning the volcano could explode in a major eruption at any moment.

Mother-of-two Maritess Nina queued for food while her husband risked his life by returning to the danger zone to tend to the family's farmland.

"We had thin noodles and bread last night. We threw some corned beef into the mix," Nina told AFP.

"I only have 100 pesos (two dollars) in my pocket, and that's our fare for going home when it is safe to do so."

The government has sent the army in to evacuate farmers refusing to leave their homes in the area fearing high-speed avalanches of ash, rock and gas that incinerate everything in their path as they roll down the volcano's flanks.

Nina's husband, along with a few others, had slipped inside the security cordon to do farm work in their small plots in the hamlet of Bonga, some seven kilometers (4.5 miles) from the smoldering crater.

"He stayed behind in Bonga because he has to sow rice," Nina said. "He has two helpers with him."

Asked if the men feared the volcanic avalanches, which experts say are nine times hotter than boiling water and move at up to 240 kilometers an hour, Nina said the prevailing winds would work in their favor.

"It won't go that way, because the winds are blowing toward Guinobatan," she said, referring to a town south of Mayon.

Her children, aged 10 and 13, slept on the floor along with two dozen other people with cardboard cartons insulating them from the cold, but their mother said they were used to it.

But conditions at the Gogon Central School, home to nearly 4,000 evacuees, were for many an improvement.

"The bathrooms here are a lot better than the one we have at home," Nina said. "The governor had them built especially for us."

A third of families in the province where Mayon is located are officially considered poor, including many of the farmers displaced by the eruption.

Nina said the evacuees were surviving on basic government rations, with men raising whatever they could from their farms to supplement food handouts.

"We're getting rice and assorted items: sardines, noodles, coffee," she said.

The government said in its latest bulletin that a hazardous eruption was possible within days, in an escalation from its relatively controlled eruption so far.

Some 96 ash explosions, reaching heights of up to two kilometers, booming sounds and 871 volcanic quakes had been recorded in the past 24 hours.

The 2,460-meter (8,070-foot) volcano, famed for its near-perfect cone, has erupted 48 times in recorded history. In 1814, more than 1,200 people were killed as lava buried the town of Cagsawa.