Two Strange Survivors Of The 1902 Volcanic Eruption

   In 1902 a volcanic eruption flattened an entire Saint-Pierre, killing everyone but two people. One was a prisoner who only survived because he'd stabbed a policeman and had been put into solitary confinement. He was horribly burned, was pardoned of his crimes and became a circus attraction.

   Four days after the eruption, a rescue team heard his cries from the rubble of the prison.

  The only other survivor in the town was Léon Compère-Léandre, a shoemaker whose house was on the very edge of the pyroclastic flow. A young girl called Havivra Da Ifrile, who ran from the lava, got into a boat and survived when it was washed out to sea.