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Heaven lived up to its name. A peaceful rural settlement in the heart of the Biosphere Reserve. But now it’s the exact opposite: one hell of lava. This small town on the Spanish island of La Palma offers no barrier to the long lines of magma that have erupted from the Cabeza de Veca volcano since last Sunday. this monday, with previously displaced residentsFirefighters could go door-to-door to rescue abandoned animals before the lava and its accompanying fire came under the grip of lava and fire.
The smell of burning and sulfur and the constant rain of ash is accompanied by the relentless advance of lava, which carries the walls, doors and doors. A two-centimeter layer of volcanic gravel, known in the Canaries? irritated, covers the asphalt of the roads. “Against this, nothing can be done but wait,” explains Alberto, the chief of the fire brigade. Besides him, a colleague from Gran Canaria holds a recently rescued rabbit in his arms. Down the road, another firefighter carries a dog, who looks back in fright. The roar of the volcano in the background doesn’t stop, just two kilometers away and a rain of ash completely covers the LP3 highway.
The President of the Government of the Canary Islands, ngel Victor Torres, announced that after crossing the municipalities of El Paso, Los Llanos de Ariadne and Tazacourt, the lava flow will hit the coast at approximately 8:00 this Monday. Torres underlined, however, that “the presumption is that no one will have to be evicted anymore because the development of the waste is in the direction of “already vacated”. About 5,500 people had to leave their homes.
Paradise was one of the first cities to be evacuated after the explosion at 3:12 p.m. Sunday. That’s why this Monday afternoon, a dozen firefighters from La Palma and Gran Canaria rescued dogs, rabbits and birds from the harsh advance of a lava tongue about 300 meters from one of the new volcano’s nine mouths. struggled. Hours, calculated with the explosion cone at a slow start at 700 mph.
firefighters watch with awe rivers of hot material ejected by volcanoes. “A tongue of lava was moving in the eastern side of the city,” says a local worker. While moving forward, he says, the still-smoking lava stream froze. “The lava collided with itself, it dissipated and look what happened: it moves without ceremony across the center of the village”. This circumstance enabled one of the locals, Carlos Rodriguez, to save his home by just two metres. “We ran like crazy, I don’t even know how,” he explains.
As lava flows down the hill from the city center, the smell of burning and rain irritated intensifies and the temperature rises. The squad leader withdraws his men with a hand signal and one final shout: “Everyone for the trucks now!” As they pass by, they seal each house up and take the cages and panicked animals out into the street. “Look at him,” says another firefighter, pointing to the dog in his arms. “I didn’t want to leave the house, even I didn’t have a fire. And to think that his master has left him there.”
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