Mountain home narrowly escapes being engulfed by lava from La Palma volcano

Cumbre Vieja, on La Palma in the Canary Islands erupted on Sunday following a series of earthquakes. Local residents were evacuated as lava and thick, black smoke shot into the air. Around 1,000 homes are expected to be swallowed by the lava

A picturesque mountain home narrowly avoided being flooded by lava after a volcano erupted on a Spanish island.

Cumbre Vieja in La Palma in the Canary Islands erupted on Sunday, sending smoke and lava into the air.

Emergency services evacuated people living nearby, and nearly 200 homes on the island were affected.

Around 1,000 homes are expected to be “eaten up” by the effects of the eruption.

On Tuesday, the west of La Palma was declared a natural disaster zone as the lava reached a former farming village, which is currently home to 1,300 people. The entire town has been evacuated.

The miracle of the mountain cottage saved from destruction was captured by photographer Alfonso Escalero. He posted a photograph on his Instagram page, i_love_the_world.es.

He caption the photograph: “Saved or isolated. Everything is like this in La Palma.

“Today I haven’t got the strength to take more photos with the first light of light. We will go out tonight like donkeys, with our eyes covered. Sorry!”

The photograph shows lava on all four sides of the one-storey property. Instead of engulfing the building like it has so many others, the river of lava opened up to leave a shape like the letter “D” around it, with the green of the mountainside still intact a few feet either side of its walls.

The image was described as “incredible” by social media users, who said it united nature and tragedy.

Angel Victor Torres, the Canary Islands’ regional president, has already said the cost of the natural disaster suffered by La Palma will reach “much more than POUNDS 340 million.”

Nearly 1,650 feet of tarmacked roads were said to be under volcanic lava.

Firefighter Victor Manuel Fernandez, posting footage of the lava reaching other homes in affected parts of La Palma, said: “The force of nature is unstoppable.”

The Cumbre Vieja eruption came after the island registered up to 1,000 earthquakes in the previous five days alone. The island had been subject to a yellow alert, although experts said it did not mean there was an increased risk to the local population.

The emergency level was raised from yellow to red around two hours after Sunday’s eruption, affecting the municipalities of Tazacorte, El Paso, Fuencaliente, Mazo and Los Llanos de Aridane, which are home to a total of around 35,000 people.

Spain’s UME military unit were immediately mobilised to help with the ermergency response as Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez showed his support by travelling to La Palma, nicknamed La Isla Bonita which means Beautiful Island in Spanish, before heading to New York.
Cumbre Vieja, Spanish for Old Summit, erupted twice in the 20th century – in 1949 and again in 1971. One person lost their life in the eruption of 1971.

Seismic activity in the south of the island of La Palma has been “anomalous” since 2017, with eight earthquake swarms recorded since the summer of 2020.
La Palma is one of the westernmost and youngest islands of the Canary archipelago along with El Hierro.

The island, the first largest of the Canary Islands, is regarded as one of the highest potential risks in the volcanic archipelago and therefore in-depth studies to define its state of unrest are seen as vital.

La Palma is said to be at potential risk of undergoing a large landslide which could cause a tsunami in the Atlantic Ocean.