Mount Pelée: The Deadliest Eruption in Caribbean History

Mount Pelée is a volcano located on the French Caribbean island of Martinique. It’s infamous for one of the most catastrophic eruptions in modern history. On the morning of May 8, 1902, the volcano violently erupted, destroying everything in its path and claiming over 30,000 lives in just one day. The city of Saint-Pierre was completely obliterated, with only two known survivors.

One of the survivors was a 25-year-old man named Louis-Auguste Cyparis. He had been imprisoned after injuring a friend during a bar fight. Interestingly, Louis escaped jail shortly before the eruption but turned himself in the next morning. His life was spared because his cell had thick stone walls and poor ventilation, which protected him from the lethal pyroclastic surge. After the disaster, he became something of a local celebrity.

The second survivor was a shoemaker who lived on the outskirts of the town, far enough from the main path of destruction to survive.

What many people don’t know is that there was reportedly a third person who survived the eruption. A young girl named Havivra da Ifrile escaped in a small boat to a seaside cave where she and her brother used to play. Her firsthand account from 1902 tells of the horror she witnessed:

“When I reached the main street, I saw the volcano had exploded and boiling lava was racing down the mountain. At first, it followed the road, but then the flow grew stronger and destroyed houses on both sides. I saw a glowing red stream pouring from another part of the volcano, cutting off the escape route for people running from their homes. As I reached the shore and looked back, the entire mountain seemed to collapse and boil over the screaming crowd. I was burned by falling stones and ash near the boat, but I managed to make it to the cave.”