Despite its duration (85 days) and the impressive images of molten lava flows, the eruption of Cumbre Vieja on the Spanish island of La Palma had so far officially caused no deaths.

A corpse had indeed been discovered on November 13 in the security perimeter on this Canary island, but the authorities were awaiting the results of the autopsy to decide on the causes of death.

A 72-year-old man, the only human victim of the eruption

On Monday, justice finally formalized "a fatal victim" of "the eruption of the La Palma volcano between September 18 and December 13, 2021".

“The autopsy confirmed that the 72-year-old man found dead in the garage of his home died after inhaling toxic gases, which certifies that the tragedy did indeed have a human victim,” a court concluded. of the Canary Islands in a press release issued on Monday.


These three months of eruption had left the 83,000 inhabitants of La Palma, a very touristic island, bloodless: more than 7,000 people had been evacuated, nearly 3,000 buildings destroyed and banana plantations wiped off the map.

The lava had covered 1,250 hectares on the island and had even… Expanded by solidifying on contact with seawater, giving rise to two peninsulas.

This eruption was the longest in La Palma and the first in 50 years, after those of San Juan in 1949 and Teneguia in 1971.

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