“It’s not a volcano, it’s a hideous monster,” calls Mathias Siebold and looks almost angrily over at the nearby Cumbre Vieja mountain range. But the monster is silent. For a few days, the volcano on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma has not been spitting fire and no longer hissing. Only one column of smoke is currently rising above the crater, which is a little over 1000 meters above sea level. The mountain has calmed down.
Will you keep calm over Christmas after the volcano has simmered for more than 90 days and displaced thousands of people? “That would be our best present,” say the German emigrants Mathias Siebold (61) and his wife Ingrid (58), who live in a 150-year-old house with a garden and a sea view at the foot of the Feuerberg. “We hope that it is finally over now.”
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The chances of the volcano falling asleep for good are good, say Spanish geologists. No new lava flows, the crater emits less sulfur dioxide, the earth no longer shakes. A good three months after the eruption of the volcano, which exploded on September 19 in the southwest of the island, the Siebolds can now for the first time hope for an end to their nightmare and a peaceful Christmas.
According to the experts, the volcanic eruption ended after around three months, the local Pevolca emergency committee announced at a press conference on Saturday, as reported by the dpa news agency. The volcano in the Cumbre Vieja, which erupted on September 19, suddenly came to a standstill on the evening of December 13. Since then there have been no more explosive discharges, no vibrations in the volcano and hardly any earthquakes in the depths have been measured.
Nevertheless, Pevolca spokesman Miguel Ángel Morcuende warned that the still nameless volcano would remain unpredictable and could suddenly awaken to new life. In addition, the gases that are still escaping are dangerous. Everyone who returned to their homes near the volcano to remove ashes or secure important items should ventilate the buildings for at least 15 minutes beforehand, state TV broadcaster RTVE reported on Saturday
“From us it is just under three kilometers to the crater,” report Ingrid and Mathias Siebold, who have been living on La Palma for decades. He was born in Bavaria and comes from Lower Saxony. “The lava came down the mountain at a distance of one and a half kilometers.” From the terrace of her house you can see the kilometer-wide black lava ceiling. At night the mountainside glows orange-red.
You can’t live closer to the volcano
You can’t live closer to the volcano than the Siebolds. The restricted area begins right behind the house. An apocalyptic zone where the lava buried everything that stood in its way. What was not swallowed up is covered in ash: houses, streets, palm trees turned black. Instead of winter snow, ash fell from the sky and turned this paradise into a gloomy, dreary landscape. Mathias Siebold’s vegetable garden is also under a blanket of ash.
He tries to save his plants with a hoe and a water hose. Almost 3,000 buildings, half of them residential and holiday homes, drowned in the lava. 7000 people had to flee. The village of Todoque and part of the village of La Laguna disappeared under a layer of lava up to 50 meters thick. The worst volcanic disaster for 500 years on La Palma. A drama that happened right under the Siebolds’ noses. But a drama in which miracles also occurred. Like the one in La Laguna, where the lava roller came to a stop a few meters in front of the bell tower of the village church.
“We were still lucky,” says Mathias Siebold, who ran a travel agency on the island for a long time. “Everything could have been worse.” For example if the volcanic gorge had opened a little further north. For example, directly above the village of El Paso, where the Siebolds’ lovingly restored finca is located. From El Paso the lava would have rolled directly through the lower-lying places Los Llanos and Tazacorte. An area where 33,000 people live. “Then there would have been deaths.”
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“In the beginning it was terrible,” says Siebold. The tall pillars of fire. The deafening explosions. The constant trembling of the ground. “We feared the thing would fly around our ears.” The Siebolds fled temporarily. “We were scared.” As were many neighbors who packed their bags.
However, Mathias and Ingrid Siebold came back to their house a little later, which they had owned for 40 years. They were determined to defend their property against the ash storm that drowned the houses in mountains of black flakes and caused roofs to collapse. The Siebolds did not want to be driven away from the volcano. “We belong here.” La Palma is their home.
Volcanic disaster hits many people
Many names from German-speaking countries on mailboxes indicate that the volcanic disaster hit hundreds of people from Germany, but also from Austria and Switzerland. The Aridane Valley, one third of which has been devastated, has so far been considered one of the most beautiful corners of La Palma. It is the heart of the island where tourism and banana cultivation flourished until the lava eruption.
The Siebolds were able to save their property, others have lost everything. It was particularly hard for Michael Nguyen, who comes from the greater Stuttgart area. First the business premises of his car and holiday home rental “La Palma 24” in Todoque were buried under the lava. Just like the yoga center there of his wife Heidrun (56), who grew up in Bielefeld. Then the private house disappeared. “There is now 20 meters of lava over it,” he says wistfully. “It looks there now like on the moon.”
But Nguyen, who has lived and worked on La Palma for 30 years, does not want to give up. “We are stronger than the volcano,” the 54-year-old swears in his makeshift business premises in Los Llanos, the largest city near the volcano.
It’s a visit with obstacles, as there is curfew that day due to toxic volcanic gases wafting through the streets of Los Llanos. “Don’t go out of the house,” warns the police over the loudspeaker.
On the same day, the volcano once again blows large amounts of ash into the air, which lays like black snow on the glittering Christmas trees and fairy lights.
Michael Nguyen draws new hope. He was able to rent a small replacement house for the family at a safe distance from the volcano. He and his 23-year-old son Daniel keep the company running in emergency mode. But business has collapsed. Many tourists have canceled their bookings. Although a visit to the island, at least outside of the volcanic zone, is still possible without any problems.
But it is not only bitter experiences that Nguyen and others have in this volcanic drama. “The cohesion among the islanders, the palm eeros, is overwhelming,” he says. “A lot of people called me and offered help.” For example, help to rescue his rental car on the day the lava struck and to drive him out of the danger zone.
What happens now? “We try to make the best of it,” says Nguyen’s son Daniel. “We’re looking ahead.” The 23-year-old was born on the island. And he realizes that this may not be the only volcanic eruption in his life. “We are a volcanic island. And of course that can happen again. “
