“The longest night”. This is how those affected by the volcanic inferno unleashed last Sunday in La Palma sum up how they experienced the first dawn after the eruptions. They live with the images of a historic event and untold scenes of destruction. “People are talking about a beautiful spectacle without stopping to think about the damage caused by a crisis of this magnitude ,” said Katy Rocha, a resident of Los Llanos de Aridane, about an event that will leave a deep social and economic scar.
Katy found it hard to get to sleep. She stared out the window for hours until giving up. “It was right in front of me and all I remember is the never-ending sound of the explosions…..The fireballs rose to more than a hundred metres high and I just felt impotence and rage”, adding that “I don’t understand how some people can talk about the beauty of an eruption when you are watching lava sweeping away the houses, with the sacrifices of many years and many generations”. Overcome by a shock she had never experienced at such close quarters, her first thought is for the people who have lost everything. “They have been left with nothing; that land is going to be dead for decades.”
Diego Martin lives less than a kilometre away from Cabeza de Vaca, right at the epicenter of the eruption zone. Before returning home he was making and handing out sandwiches to the Protección Civil, Guardia Civil, Policía Local and UME, and much earlier in the morning, a family member helped him move a horse and a dog to safety. He runs a sports performance and injury recovery centre, and another of his activities involves the El Paso Volunteer Fire Brigade.
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