The photo is an iconic image of the volcanic disaster on La Palma: a small, white house with a red roof escapes the burning lava. The currents bend and leave the house undisturbed.
“That photo shows that you can also withstand a tragedy,” said photographer Alfonso Escalero, who took the image on Tuesday near the village of El Paso. He doesn’t quite get it yet. The picture of the undamaged house went viral after it appeared on his video company’s Facebook page.
“We were on La Palma to take videos and photos of the eruption, but barely prepared for the consequences,” says Escalero. “It was only after the blow that I realized how houses are being destroyed, and people and animals are threatened. The reality of La Palma is more for war photographers than for us. I was not ready for so much tragedy.”
Escalero posted the photo on Tuesday, without realizing how special the image was. He photographed dozens of houses that day surrounded by the burning lava, and the red-roofed house was one of them.
Danish couple
The statue was also seen by the Dutch Ada Monnikendam, who has a construction company on the island. Monnikendam came into contact with a Danish couple three decades ago, for whom she designed and built the house with the red roof. When it was finished, the Danes gave the house a name ‘La casita’, literally ‘The cottage’.
“It was a shock that it was still there,” says Monnikendam. She made contact with the Danish couple, who are now elderly and have not been on La Palma since the pandemic. “We had to cry, we were convinced that the house had been bulldozed. It’s joy because that one house is still there. And sadness about the drama you see everywhere.”
There isn’t really an explanation as to why the lava went around ‘La Casita’. “The terrain is no different than in other places. It is miraculous. In some places the lava flow is twelve meters high. That photo is a signal of hope. For all inhabitants of the island.”
The volcano on the island of La Palma erupted on Sunday for the first time in 50 years:
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