24. A Prosperous Town That Vanished Beneath an Incandescent Volcanic Cloud
A column of dense smoke shot skywards from the top of Mount Pelee and formed a mushroom cloud that darkened the sky for about 50 miles. Another dense cloud of glowing black smoke shot horizontally, straight into Saint Pierre. The cloud consisted of superheated steam, gasses, ashes, and dust known as tephra, and it raced into the city at a speed of nearly 420 miles per hour. All the town’s buildings were flattened, and the population was burned or suffocated to death.
Offshore, a witness in a steamship described the city’s horrific fate when the incandescent cloud hit: “The fire rolled down upon Saint Pierre. The town vanished before our eyes“. The eruption killed about 28,000 people in Saint Pierre – the town’s entire population, except for one man: Ludger Sylbaris. A manual laborer and frequent troublemaker, Sylbaris had gotten into a bar brawl on the night of May 7th, just a few hours before the eruption. As seen below, his wayward ways saved Sylbaris’ life.