1902 eruption of Mount Pelée

This map shows the island of Martinique and the eruption of Mt. Pelee (Northwest). It shows the range that the lava travelled, showing a few towns including the major city of St. Pierre to the southwest of the volcano.
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-map-showing-the-eruption-of-mount-pelee-martinique-1902-artist-unknown-17640201.html

    On May 8th, 1902, the volcano Mount Pelée had the deadliest eruption of the 20th century, killing 30,000 people in the process. Mount Pelée is a stratovolcano located at the Northwest corner of the Caribbean island of Martinique at 14.809°N, 61.166°W. It has a peak with an elevation of 4,500 feet high. Mount Pelée was a historically active volcano known as the mountain of fire by locals before the island was settled and claimed by the French. So by 1902, the people living in the village of St. Pierre and surrounding area had experienced minor activity from the volcano before. There was a small eruption on May 2nd which had smaller explosions and lit up the night skies. This smaller eruption killed some birds flying and fish were found dead, but people did not evacuate the town of St. Pierre due to both reassurances from the government and because around 50 years before there was an eruption of similar magnitude which had no effect on the town. As the days passed, the volcano continued to show signs of activity, with things like lahars coming down the mountain and destroying sugar plantations and flames coming from the peak of the volcano. Finally early in the morning on May, 8th, Mount Pelée had a violent eruption which sent a pyroclastic flow of rock, ash, and superheated gas straight to the village of St. Pierre. The flow, traveling at around 100 miles per hour, hit the city and absolutely devastated it. Buildings were leveled to the ground and all of the ~30,000 people in the village were killed except for two survivors. It is believed that most were killed by the initial impact, while others had their throats and lungs seared by the superheated gas of the pyroclastic flow. In addition to those in the village, there were around 30 ships in the harbor, most of which capsized or burned, taking most of their crew with them. The eruption left the city burning, with the ash igniting the rubble and the countless barrels of rum stored there. 

The coastline of St. Pierre after the eruption, showing the buildings and still smoking village.
https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/benchmarks-may-8-1902-deadly-eruption-mount-pelee/Saint_Pierre_YORYM-TA0176_promo.jpg

        

        Not near as much was known about volcanos in the early 1900s as is known now. This eruption was actually the one which led to the knowledge pyroclastic flows existed. Monitoring and activity detection is also much easier today due to the advances in technology. This has to be taken into account when looking into what could have been done to prevent so much damage with this volcano. That being said, this situation was still handled so poorly and ultimately lost many lives which could have been prevented. There are several reasons this eruption killed so many people. Many of the people living in St. Pierre believed that the volcano posed no threat due to the fact that it had shown activity on multiple occasions before, even spitting ash on the city, and had done little real harm. In addition to that, at the time there was an election going on for governor of the island, and the sitting governor was worried that if he evacuated the village, he would lose votes. So he assembled a committee of people to speak to the local newspaper. The committee assured people that there was no threat, and that the town of St. Pierre was perfectly safe. The newspaper then printed the reassurance and distributed it throughout the region. The residents, as well as government officials, assumed as well that lava flows were the only thing to possibly worry about, as there was no prior knowledge of pyroclastic flows. While the town should have been evacuated, it is hard to  This of course was not the case as the village was located right in the path of a pyroclastic flow which destroyed the town. While the town should have been evacuated, it is hard to say that based on their limited knowledge of volcanic eruptions at the time. Although a tragic disaster, geologists and other earth scientists were able to learn a lot about volcanic eruptions from this disaster, and are now aware that volcanic eruptions  are not dangerous solely due to lava flows. If the volcano ever shows activity again, St. Pierre will have hopefully learned from past experience and evacuate in a timely manner, though why the city was built back again right next to an active volcano, I am unsure. 

 

This is an image of modern day St. Pierre with Mt. Pelée sitting quietly behind the village.
https://volcano.si.edu/gallery/photos/GVP-10668.jpg

 

Video: 

    This video provides a history of Mt. Pelee, from its formation to current activity. It explains the events of the May 8th eruption as well as continues on to mention current signs of activity from the volcano. 

Sources:

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/volcanic-eruption-buries-caribbean-city

https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-may-8-1902-deadly-eruption-mount-pelee/

http://sci.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Pelee.html

https://www.nsm.buffalo.edu/courses/gly433/pdfPowerPoint/Hanson.pdf

https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=360120

https://volcanofoundation.org/mount-pelee-martinique/