La Palma: lava from the volcano reached a cement plant

The cement factory was hit by a lava flow from the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which erupted on September 19. Although it has not left victims, it caused great damage on this small island in the Atlantic archipelago of the Canary Islands with 85,000 inhabitants, 6,000 of whom had to be evacuated.” An area of the cement factory has entered into combustion, and consequently and until we can analyze if the air quality allows normal life, it has been decided to make the confinement to avoid possible health problems, “miguel Ángel Morcuende, technical director of the Emergency Plan for the eruption of the volcano (Pevolca), said at a press conference. According to the official, the affected people are around “2,500 or 3,000” and are those who live in areas near the cement factory and who must remain in their homes. The lava has already destroyed more than 1,200 buildings and covered an area of nearly 600 hectares, according to authorities. The airport of La Palma was still operating on Monday, although the authorities warned that the ash cloud could interrupt its activity, as happened on two occasions since the volcano erupted, the last of them between Last Thursday and Saturday. This is the third eruption of a volcano in La Palma in the last century, after that of San Juan in 1949 and that of Teneguía in 1971, which left a total of three dead.

Original source in Spanish