There was no hopeof escape.
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| An avalanche of toxic gas: Mount Pelee erupts |
At exactly 8.02amon 8 May, 1902, there was a cataclysmic explosion on the Caribbean island ofMartinique. The island’s volcano - Mount Pelee - had ripped itself open, forcinga gigantic mushroom cloud into the sky. Seconds later, an avalanche ofsuperheated gas and dust began thundering down the slopes of the volcano.
Directly below,and in the path of the boiling flood, lay St-Pierre, a town of some 30,000inhabitants. As everyone glanced at the torrent of toxic debris heading towardsthem at great speed, they realised that survival would depend entirely uponluck.
The avalanche hadpicked up such momentum that it was to reach St-Pierre in less than a minute.The temperature of the flow was in excess of 1,000 degrees centigrade and itwas vaporising everything in its path.
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| First hint of danger: a burst of smoke |
Among theterrified inhabitants of the town was Léon Compère Léandre, a local shoemaker.He had heard the massive explosion and immediately turned to look at themountain.
‘I felt a terriblewind blowing, the earth began to tremble, and the sky suddenly became dark,’ helater wrote. ‘I turned to go into the house, with great difficulty climbed thethree or four steps that separated me from my room, and felt my arms and legsburning, also my body.’
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| Don't inhale: it's deadly |
As he collapsed inagony, four other people burst into the room, ‘crying and writhing with pain.’It was clear that they’d suffered massive internal injuries from the noxiousvolcanic gasses.
‘At the end of 10minutes one of these, the young Delavaud girl, aged about 10 years, fell dead,’recalled Léon. The others fled the building, hoping to find some avenue ofescape.
Léon went intoanother room, ‘where I found the father Delavaud, still clothed and lying onthe bed, dead. He was purple and inflated, but the clothing was intact.’
Léon was by nowdesperate. According to his account, he was ‘crazed and almost overcome’.Unable to move, he lay on a bed, ‘inert and awaiting death.’
There were a fewwitnesses to the ensuing disaster: people who were on boats at the time of theeruption. One described how the mountain was ‘blown to pieces, there was nowarning.’ Another said simply: ‘the town banished before our eyes.’
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| Absolute devastation: yet a few survive |
There was no hopeof outrunning the avalanche. Everyone in the centre of town was killed inseconds - gassed and burned to death by the noxious and fiery fumes.
One hour after thedisaster, Léon suddenly work up. He had lost consciousness at the moment theavalanche struck and was only dimly aware of what had happened.
Now, he walked outthrough the charred remains of St Pierre and eventually reached a nearbyvillage where he amazed the locals with his story.
How he managed tosurvive the furnace that rolled over the town remains a complete mystery. Theonly certainty is that the storm of gas and boiling dust had left himunscathed.
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| Survival in prison: Cyparis |
Léon was not theonly survivor: one other man escaped the inferno and he was able to recount howhe had cheated death on that grim May morning.
Louis AugusteCyparis had been incarcerated in the city’s prison on the day before theeruption, having been involved in a violent pub brawl. He was locked into anunderground cell with windowless stone walls. The only ventilation came from agrating in the metal door that faced away from the volcano.
Cyparis heard theviolent explosion of the volcano and realised at once that it had erupted.According to his account, the daylight (which he could see through the grate)vanished: day switched to night in an instant.
Seconds later,scorching air and burning ash entered his cell. He urinated on his clothes andstuffed them into the hole, but this did not prevent him receiving severeburns. But he survived the ensuing avalanche, which buried him alive under theburning ash.
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| Cyparis's cell: the only volcano-proof building in town |
The rescueoperation began within hours of the eruption. The warship Suchet reached the burning town at 12.30pm. But the heat was so ferociousthat it could not land until 3pm, when the captain managed to get ashore.
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| Mount Pelee today |
He was staggeredby what he found. Not a building, nor a tree was still standing. Everything wascharred beyond recognition. The entire 30,000 population was dead.
Cyparis was foundfour days later by a rescue team who heard his lonely cries coming from underthe rubble. He eventually recovered from his burns, was pardoned for his crimeand joined Barnum and Bailey’s circus.
The only othersurvivor of that terrible morning in May was a young girl named Haviva daIfrile. But her escape is even more mysterious than that of Léon CompèreLéandre. She was found adrift in a boat, unconscious but alive.
She had norecollection of how she got there.
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'Idiosyncratic and utterly fascinating... an extraordinary tale of hardship, horror and amazing good fortune' James Delingpole, The Daily Mail
