IT NEVER KILLS

Living with le Volcan can’t be easy but the Réunionnais insist it never kills. They once had a close escape out in Piton Sainte-Rose. In April 1977, the lava came down the hill at over 60km/h, measuring 1,200°C.

The sugar cane vaporised, and 34 houses followed. The lava then burnt through the church door before coming to a miraculous halt in the nave.

Even now, I had to clamber over a vast hummock of basalt to get through the door. I asked the locals if thoughts of a recurrence worried them, but they shrugged. On one of the most spectacular islands in the world, a little lava is just the price you pay. — ●© LS

The Daily Telegraph