Lava advances 1.5 kilometres in 24 hours destroying more homes and farm land

The lava flows from the Cumbre Vieja volcano continue their unstoppable and destructive path towards the sea. During the last 24 hours, the lava flow located further south (labelled lava flow number 3) has advanced 1,500 metres, devastating land previously untouched by lava and devouring homes and banana plantations, according to Pevolca.

Pevolca's scientific spokesperson, María José Blanco, explained at the daily press conference where she gives an account of the evolution of the catastrophe: "The flow continues to move through unaffected land and has advanced 1,500 metres, reaching a low island in the Las Hoyas area.”

“Calculations of the data from the Copernicus surveillance satellite tell us that, in total, lava now covers 963 hectares of surface area and the width of the streams is close to 3 kilometres, and so far it has destroyed 2,532 buildings and another 149 are at risk.”

What worries the authorities now is that the flow is threatening the residential area of ​​Las Norias after it broke free from flow 9 to take a new path causing new devastation.

"What was a narrow and small stream has grown spilling over stream 9, following the troughs," explained Blanco, who indicated that the new flow has not been able to ‘ride’ the previous higher stream, but runs parallel to it until the low island created by the San Juan volcano.

In fact, she indicated that it is already less than 400 metres from the sea, however, the collision of the lava and the ocean does not worry them because it would only affect the workers of the desalination plants in Puerto Naos who have already been alerted to the risk of the emission of toxic gases.