Canary Islands: at the heart of the blaze<

A thick cloud of gas laden with ash and sulfur dioxide hides the blue sky of La Palma. Columns of smoke reaching several hundred meters in height escape almost continuously from Cumbre Vieja, the "old summit" in French, one of the three volcanoes of this Canary island. For days already, planes have not landed on the tarmac of Santa Cruz on which regularly fall, in fine rain, pieces of ash as big as grains of sand. Everywhere, several times a day, the inhabitants are busy cleaning the floors and sweeping or vacuuming the roofs to prevent them from collapsing at the first downpour. On the roads too, machines resembling small snow plows clear the ash.

You can hear the heart of the volcano pounding

Motorists have been asked to stay at home, except in an emergency. Those who ride should do so slowly, so as not to slip. You can hear the heart of the volcano beating wildly: inside, the explosions thunder like huge waves crashing against a reef. The earth shakes at regular intervals, closing doors left open and sometimes breaking windows. In the worst-case scenario, experts say the eruption could cause part of the island to slide into the ocean, causing a gigantic tsunami: 600 meters in height and almost 2,000 meters in amplitude for its most big wave. "It's a phenomenon that occurs every 300,000 years, but the probability is almost zero", assures Stravos Meletlidis, volcanologist at the Spanish National Geographic Institute, before specifying: "It's very complicated to model a volcano , we do not know what will happen. »

258 hectares and 686 buildings submerged forever

Since the first eruption, Sunday September 19 at 3:13 p.m. precisely, the inhabitants of the island have been living under multiple threats: risks of lava flows, pyroclast impacts, ash rain or gas exposure. More than 6,200 of them, residents in five municipalities in the south of the island, had to be evacuated. A huge incandescent tongue, the magma at 1,075°C descends the slopes of the volcano in several flows about 6 meters high, ravaging everything in its path: houses, banana plantations, roads, schools, churches... Already 258 hectares and 686 buildings have been swallowed up forever. Three days after the eruption, the damage amounted to 400 million euros. On Monday, September 27, non-evacuated residents of villages near the volcano were ordered to confine themselves and caulk doors and windows with damp cloths: the lava was about to reach the ocean causing the emission of highly toxic gases and probably acid rain. And suddenly, the feeling of closed doors on the island, already deprived of planes, becomes suffocating: will we still be able to leave it by boat?

What do you take with you when you only have a few minutes to fill a suitcase with the belongings of a lifetime? For Melisa Rodriguez, this Sunday, September 19 at 4:30 p.m., it was, without hesitation, "the things you can't buy". His identity papers, two photos, his animals – a cat, a dog, a bird. And, in bulk, the bare minimum: two pants, two T-shirts, a pair of flip-flops, three books, a lamp. When, the day after her evacuation, the authorities allowed her to return home for fifteen minutes, she “added souvenirs, family belongings, including a small piece of furniture from [her] grandmother. An architect by training, Melisa is 35 years old. His parents, originally from the United Kingdom, left their country decades ago to invent a life under the sun of La Palma. The "isla bonita", the "beautiful island", a paradise of 708 square kilometers, a mixture of volcanic mountains, palm groves, pine forests, villages in white and ocher tones where 85,000 people live year-round, mainly tourism and bananas. People come here for its landscapes, its black sand beaches, its 320 days of sunshine a year, its sky, "the most beautiful on earth" (3,000 stars visible to the naked eye and one of the main sites of astronomical observation in the world), preserved by a law that limits night lighting.

On the morning of September 19, Diana Gomez, 38, a friend of Melisa, was at her office: “We felt strong earthquakes, we ran out and saw the landslides,” she says. Diana is a guide, specializing in volcanoes, and since she has been doing this job, every day tourists ask her: “When will the next eruption take place? And every day, she replies: “The probability for the next twenty years is very low. This is what the big shot of volcanoes told him. This same volcanologist who, today, squats the television sets to give his analyzes and his forecasts on the eruption in progress. This makes Diana half-smile: “On the one hand, she confides, I owe my work to this volcano which fascinates me; on the other, he risks taking everything from me. »

Like Melisa, her parents, originally from Australia, emigrated to the island around 40 years ago. They opened a restaurant there, El Canguro (the kangaroo), acquired a large family home, an apartment for each of their four children and land for their vegetable garden, rabbits, chickens and birds. As many properties as the lava threatens, while they have all taken refuge further away, at the boyfriend of one of the girls. Diana is saddened: the church of Todoque, her village, was swallowed up by the lava, "perhaps tonight it will be the turn of our house".

The inhabitants only have a few minutes to pick up some belongings

Anibal Diaz Garcia, 25, was born and has always lived in a pretty red and green building which, over the years, has extended to include two living rooms, three bedrooms, a pergola, a swimming pool, a barbecue, a huge garden where a dozen peacocks, geese, ducks, hens, roosters go about... He was in the cemetery with his grandmother when the volcano exploded. He too had only a few minutes to pick up what he could, "the three dogs, the cat, the parrot", while his father grabbed the important papers and some clothes. Anibal opened the barnyard door, hoping the beasts would find a way to survive. The next day, accompanied by a city councilor, he returned, before leaving in a hurry, running in a rain of stones, a full suitcase in each hand. Three days later, the house was submerged. Asuncion, his mother, struggles not to cry, but emotion overwhelms her: "We had such a magnificent life..." She thinks back to the things left behind, to the traditional clothes sewn by her grandmother, which have not no price. Her husband works in construction, she cans bananas to be sold on the continent. His banana plantation has so far been spared by the lava, but the ash that completely covers it makes it unusable.

Since the evacuation, Anibal has been arrested “for anxiety,” he says. Despite the shadow of this nervous breakdown hovering over him, he neglects the work stoppage that the doctor has given him. He is a firefighter, he wants to be useful. Like everyone here. A thousand firefighters, civil guards, soldiers, the majority of whom come from the Spanish mainland, are busy day and night with evacuation and logistics. Thanks to their involvement, there were no deaths or injuries. “We manage the emergency, but also the aftermath, with those who have already lost everything. It's not a speed race, more like a marathon: we're here for months, years," says Iñigo Vila, head of the Spanish Red Cross unit in charge of disasters. Solidarity is organized. Alongside 500 people from La Palma, the other Canary Islands and even the mainland, Melisa and Diana volunteered in the Los Llanos gymnasium, one of four places made available to receive donations of clothing and of food. There are so many that reach them that “it is not possible to count them”, assures Lorena Hernandez Labrador, deputy mayor.

Most of the displaced have found refuge

In the huge gymnasium, between the piles of shirts, T-shirts, trousers, the hundreds of pairs of shoes, the coats hung on the cages of handball, toys and stuffed animals for children, crockery, shelves filled with food and basic necessities, a huge sign reads: "Volcano: 0. Solidarity: 10". José Andrés, world cooking star, owner of several restaurants in the United States and founder of the World Central Kitchen association which helps refugees, has crossed the Atlantic to deliver hot or cold dishes to the displaced. “We supply more than a thousand every day,” explains chef Olivier Chastelain De Belleroche, member of the association. A week after the first evacuation, only 176 of the 6,200 displaced are still sleeping in hotels. Most have found refuge with relatives or, like Anibal, in an apartment lent by Don Antonio Carrillo, a wealthy landowner on the island. “We are going to buy 200 homes within a month,” promises Mariano Hernandez Zapata, president of the local authority of La Palma.

Read also.In the Canary Islands, the island of La Palma is expanding with the torrent of lava flowing into the ocean

Fifty years ago, the volcano woke up. He had at the time taken a route further south, less inhabited. “Because, recalls Norberta, 87, who has already experienced three eruptions, the island was also less built up. This time, the lava chose the course of the humans, seizing their homes as it passed. The authorities tried to divert the course of this incandescent magma, but had to quickly give up. “We can fight a fire, recalls Diana, but against a volcano, it is impossible! We won't even be able to find any trace of the sunken houses. The lava sterilizes the floors, making it impossible to build. Without water, electricity, roads, even the houses spared will be uninhabitable. Many in La Palma wonder if they will be reimbursed by insurance. One day, no doubt, Diana will resume the course of her existence, leading tourists once again to the slopes of Cumbre Vieja, soothed and satiated, thinking with nostalgia for happy times, for her parents' house, which she may wander about without knowing it, since no trace will remain. In the meantime, she trembles with this land that has long nourished her before taking everything back.