La Palma volcano - Canary Islands face toxic gas clouds as terrifying lava flow heads towards sea amid 'constant' quakes

‘WE TOOK EVERYTHING WE COULD…’

As the lava on La Palma advanced, residents of the Todoque neighborhood of Los Llanos were given one hour on Tuesday night to rescue what they could from their homes.

Local resident Oliver Carmona, 33, described the situation he was in as “the eye of the storm”.

“We took everything we could. Everything we could. First the sentimental things, the photos, the paintings…”

A civil guard explained the severity of the situation, saying: within a few days, all this will be unrecognisable, the houses will have disappeared, as well as the sidewalks and the plots, so documents will be needed to certify who the land belongs to.”

“We need to take advantage of this and make demands… When all this cools down, no one will demand anything from them on the peninsula. And we will need to rebuild the houses, reinstall the pipes, the electricity, replant the crops…”