Lava from La Palma volcano sparks cement factory fire, pushing 2,500 people into lockdown
The principle hazard got here from the gasoline and smoke spewing from the blaze in an industrial park within the lava’s path, the official, Miguel Angel Morcuende, mentioned at a information briefing.
“The committee most well-liked to order the lockdown for the protection of the folks,” mentioned Morcuende, who’s the technical director of the Canary Island authorities’s volcano disaster committee.
He advised reporters that 2,500 to three,000 residents close to the hearth had been straight affected by the lockdown.
The volcano on La Palma began erupting on September 19 and it hasn’t stopped but. On its twenty third consecutive day of exercise, the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute posted video of a recent eruption on Monday, displaying a thick darkish plume rising from the crater.
The lava had destroyed 591 hectares (or 1,460 acres) of agricultural land by Monday — a rise of simply over 10% from a day earlier — with about half of the entire in misplaced banana plantations, and the remainder in ruined vineyards and avocado farms, Morcuende mentioned.
The Volcanology Institute tweeted that the lava has destroyed almost 1,200 buildings on La Palma Island, which has a inhabitants of about 80,000 folks. It is likely one of the smaller islands in Spain’s Canaries archipelago within the Atlantic.
