The first building permit for a house on the lava flow of the La Palma volcano has been granted to a resident of La Laguna, Ricardo Camacho, who intends to rebuild his home in the same place where it was a year and a half ago, on October 20, 2021. , was buried under at least two meters of lava.
Next to the ruins of the La Laguna school, on the border between urbanizations and the basalt walls produced by the eruption, is the plot where this neighbor will build his home again, although he acknowledges that “it will be more modest than the previous one, before it had a 400 square meter mansion, now it will be simpler, according to my current situationâ€.
Ricardo Camacho acknowledges that “it is a joy, not only for me but for the rest of the neighbors in my same situation, that a license has already been granted to build on the lava flow thanks to the reduction of the exclusion area.” He is convinced that “little by little we will recover the house we had before.”
This person affected by the volcano, a nurse by profession, has received aid from the State and the Cabildo de La Palma as well as compensation from his home insurance, so that “there are financial resources to start building, I have given many injections to throughout my career,” he jokes.
“The problem now is in the workforce in the construction sector. If it were up to me I would start the work today, the architects have told me that yes, it is viable to build on these lava walls, â€says Camacho while he watches the laborers working on the reconstruction of the roads in the area.
To begin the construction of his new home, a series of preliminary checks must be carried out on the temperature and stability of the casting, as well as a clearing of lava material to level the plot on which the new house of Ricardo Camacho and his family will be located. family.
Camacho is not afraid of rebuilding in the same location where 18 months ago the lava flows from the volcano known today as Tajogaite advanced towards the sea, because “volcanoes are everywhere on the island. This is the second eruption that I have experienced, it did not scare me while it was active and it took my house and that of many others.
Less than a hundred meters from Ricardo Camacho’s plot, covered entirely by the badlands created by the Tajogaite volcano, there are townhouses that were saved from the lava flows thanks, according to this neighbor, to the fact that “my house and that of the neighbor, who were big, made a retaining wall so that the laundry did not reach the next door urbanizationâ€.
The City Council of Los Llanos de Aridane is working on the processing of a dozen licenses to build on the lava flows, like the one granted to Ricardo Camacho, in addition to having granted a total of 120 construction licenses on rural land to those affected by the eruption. , according to Decree Law 4/22 approved by the Government of the Canary Islands.
Ricardo Camacho is confident that his current illusion will soon be that of other residents with properties in the area around the lava flows so that the neighborhoods of La Laguna, Las Manchas or Las Norias, among others, will once again be “something similar, although not the same â€, which was before the lava flows from the volcano erased everything in their path.
