Havivra Da Ifrile

Havivra Da Ifrile, was a little girl who is one of only three survivors (on dry land) after Mount Pelée erupted on the French-Caribbean island of Martinique on 8 May, 1902.

Very early in the morning of May 8, Havivra was on her way to services at the cathedral in St. Pierre when her mother sent her on an errand. She was to walk to her aunt's pastry shop near a local tourist attraction known as the Corkscrew. The "Corkscrew" was named after a tourist trail that wound down into an ancient crater, or satellite cone, located halfway up the flank of the volcano. As Havivra approached the Corkscrew, she noticed smoke rising from the crater. After looking into the crater, she described it in this manner: "There I saw the bottom of the pit all red, like boiling, with little blue flames coming from it." She apparently saw three people trying to run up the Corkscrew before they were engulfed in ". . . a puff of blue smoke . . " and ". . . fell as if killed." She fled toward St. Pierre.

"Just as I got to the main street I saw this boiling stuff burst from the top of the Corkscrew and run down the side of the hill. It followed the road first, but then as the stream got bigger, it ate up the houses on both sides of the road. Then I saw that a boiling red river was coming from another part of the hill and cutting off the escape of the people who were running from their houses."

Frightened, Havivra ran to the shore and jumped into her brother's small boat and headed along the shore to a cave that she used to play pirate in with her friends.

"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."

While in the safety of the cave, she heard a hissing sound as the hot pyroclastic debris entered the water. The last thing she remembered before lapsing into unconsciousness was the water rising rapidly toward the roof of the cave. She was later found by the French cruiser Suchet drifting two miles out to sea in her charred and broken boat.

The other two (depending on how you define) survivors are Léon Compere-Léandre, a shoemaker, and Louis-Auguste Cyparis aka Ludger Sylbaris a convicted felon who was pardoned and later joined the circus.

External links

* [http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Pelee.html Mt. Pelée Eruption (1902)]
* [http://library.thinkquest.org/26568/pelee.htm Thinkquest.org article]