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Volcanic eruption on La Palma
Photo: Christoph Hardt / Future Image / IMAGO
The German emigrant Siglinde doesn't seem to be able to fully understand the excitement: »I don't need two houses.
I have two and can only live in one,” she said, shrugging in front of TV cameras.
Siglinde has lived on La Palma for 32 years and witnessed the devastating volcanic eruption that destroyed many houses on the Canary Island.
Now, half a year after the end of the volcanic eruption, Siglinde and her husband caused a sensation with a selfless act.
The Germans gave away one of their two houses at the disaster area in the south of the island to a family whose home had been destroyed by the lava flows, as reported by the regional newspaper "Diario de Avisos".
The couple donated their home to Spaniard José Alonso Placencia and his partner Viviane.
The volcano victims could not believe their luck.
Placencia said, 'It's a feeling that's hard to explain.
It's like a new beginning, a special birthday.«
The two couples met on Facebook.
The volcano victims were initially allowed to live rent-free in the house of Siglinde and her husband for months until they got it transferred on Tuesday.
"Everything we had built for 20 years was washed away by the lava, but luckily we now have a house for our son to inherit," Brazilian Viviane told Spanish media.
They suffered greatly from the loss: "We didn't sleep or eat for days."
However, the media hype "overwhelmed Viviane," she wrote to the dpa news agency.
The good deed even attracted television crews from Brazil to the island.
You and Siglinde didn't want to give any more interviews for the time being.
The volcanic eruption on La Palma was declared over in December after three long months on Christmas Day.
The affected area on the Cumbre Vieja mountain range still looks almost like a lunar landscape, with the chimneys of buried houses protruding here and there from the ashes.
The balance: More than 7,000 people had to be brought to safety because their homes were destroyed, and the damage was estimated at almost one billion euros.
Volcano victims complain that most of the government's aid commitments have still not been implemented.
kha/dpa
