Last eruption: 1932
Elevation: 1,397 m (4,583 ft.)
Location: France
Type: stratovolcano
Famous eruption: May 8,1902
The stratovolcano, called Mt. Pelee, was approximately 1,400 meters high, cone shaped, and took up a surface of 100 meters on the North part of Martinique. The residents of St. Pierre living in Martinique, a French island in the Caribean Sea, had lived for over two centuries in the shade of "their" volcano. By 1902 they even had become familiar with the volcano. On May 8, 1902, Mt. Pelee erupted and destroyed St. Pierre. It left only two survivors. One of the two survivors was 25 year old Louis Auguste Cyparis, a convicted felon who injured his friend with a glass during a bar fight. Interestingly Louis escaped the jail the night before the eruption, but he reported himself to the jail the next morning. He survived because his dungeon cell had poor ventilation. Later he became a local celebrity.
The second survivor was a young girl called Havivra Da Ifrile. She escaped in the small boat towards the cave where she played with her brother. This is supposedly the statement from 1902: "Just as I got to the main street I saw this boiling stuff burst from the top of the cork screw and run down the side of the hill. It followed the road first, but then as the stream grew bigger, it ate up the houses on both sides of the road. Then I saw the boiling red river was coming from the other side of the hill and cutting off the escape of the people who were running from their houses. But before I got there I looked back and the whole side of the mountain, which was near the town, seemed to open and boil down on the screaming people. I was burned a good deal by the stones and ashes that came flying about the boat, but I got to the cave."
Elevation: 1,397 m (4,583 ft.)
Location: France
Type: stratovolcano
Famous eruption: May 8,1902
The stratovolcano, called Mt. Pelee, was approximately 1,400 meters high, cone shaped, and took up a surface of 100 meters on the North part of Martinique. The residents of St. Pierre living in Martinique, a French island in the Caribean Sea, had lived for over two centuries in the shade of "their" volcano. By 1902 they even had become familiar with the volcano. On May 8, 1902, Mt. Pelee erupted and destroyed St. Pierre. It left only two survivors. One of the two survivors was 25 year old Louis Auguste Cyparis, a convicted felon who injured his friend with a glass during a bar fight. Interestingly Louis escaped the jail the night before the eruption, but he reported himself to the jail the next morning. He survived because his dungeon cell had poor ventilation. Later he became a local celebrity.
The second survivor was a young girl called Havivra Da Ifrile. She escaped in the small boat towards the cave where she played with her brother. This is supposedly the statement from 1902: "Just as I got to the main street I saw this boiling stuff burst from the top of the cork screw and run down the side of the hill. It followed the road first, but then as the stream grew bigger, it ate up the houses on both sides of the road. Then I saw the boiling red river was coming from the other side of the hill and cutting off the escape of the people who were running from their houses. But before I got there I looked back and the whole side of the mountain, which was near the town, seemed to open and boil down on the screaming people. I was burned a good deal by the stones and ashes that came flying about the boat, but I got to the cave."
The picture on the left is Havivra Da Ifrile, one of the Mt. Pelee survivors. The picture on the right is another survivor called Louis Auguste Cyparis.