La Palma volcano: Family’s anguish as lava destroys ‘miracle house’

A house that miraculously survived an erupting volcano on La Palma in the Spanish Canary Islands for days has now been consumed by lava. The retired Danish couple who owned the house, Inge Bergedorf and Ranier Cocq, told Spanish media on Tuesday it had been swallowed by the flow. “Everything is destroyed,” Mr Cocq told the El Mundo newspaper. The property became known as the “miracle house” after escaping lava flowing from the Cumbre Vieja volcano. The lava has flattened hundreds of homes and forced the evacuation of more than 6,000 people since it started pouring from the volcano on 19 September. On Tuesday night the lava reached the Atlantic Ocean, on the west coast of the island, raising fears of explosions and the release of toxic gases.(BBC)…[+]