While covering the volcanic eruption that is currently affecting the island of La Palma in the Canaries, this TeleCinco reporter, Arantxa de Fez did something that you never see on TV: help those she was going to film, stop everything and put the camera down to lend a hand.
It was Tuesday, September 21, around noon in Todoque, one of the localities threatened by lava. She and her cameraman immortalize the progress of the flow on the houses, when three people emerge from a pavilion, boxes full of arms, obviously trying to save what can be saved. The reporter begins by commenting on the scene saying: “CAs you can see, the residents are evacuating one after the other, while the lava is a few meters away… “ And suddenly, she stops to call out to the father of the family: “Await, do you need help? Can we do something? “ To which the man replies: “Yes, wear clothes“.
Together there is no volcano to weaken us
Journalists stop what they are doing to help a family evacuate their home on La Palma
We don’t know you, but thank you pic.twitter.com/j32hlgEG9S
– (Fauerzaesp) Special Forces (@Fauerzaesp) September 21, 2021
Immediately, we see on the screen the journalist put down her microphone and run towards the house. Then the camera goes down to the ground, and we understand that the cameraman, Adrian Fernandez, put it down to help in his turn. In the image follows the ballet of the arms which deposit boxes, clothes, food, in the trunk of the car. “We did what anyone would have done in such a situation “, explained the journalist the next day on Twitter, adding “We took out everything we could, jewelry boxes, the children’s shoes, the parents’ wedding album.“In short, a whole life and the memories that go with it, saved from the flames.
We did what anyone would have done in that situation, at times like this is what we have to do. Thanks for the words ❤️ @AdriFdezGarcia
– Arantxa de Fez (@arantxadefez) September 21, 2021
Today, the house no longer exists, the village of Todoque has been partially submerged under the tongue of lava. Hence the emotion on social networks where the sequence, republished by local rescuers, has been seen more than 840,000 times and has earned the journalist thousands of messages. We rent pell-mell his “empathy“, son “humility“, “his humanity so rare on TV“.
Because as Internet users note, what we see in general, under the guise of neutrality, of distance from the event, are above all “sensational images“, sometimes “voyeurists“, violent, embarrassing.”Thank you Arantxa, that’s what we want to see, we want more empathy, less show“, sums up a Twitter user.
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