Leon Compere-Leandre was a shoemaker who had the good luck to live in a house at the very edge of the pyroclastic flow. He was able to survive by throwing himself into the ocean although the superheated water nearly scalded him to death. In describing the disaster, he stated that:
"I felt a terrible wind blowing, the earth began to tremble, and the sky suddenly became dark. I turned to go into the house, with great difficulty climbed the three or four steps that separated me from my room, and felt my arms and legs burning, also my body. I dropped upon a table. At this moment four others sought refuge in my room, crying and writhing with pain, although their garmets (sic) showed no sign of having been touched by flame. At the end of 10 minutes one of these, the young Delavaud girl, aged about 10 years, fell dead; the others left. I got up and went to another room, where I found the father Delavaud, still clothed and lying on the bed, dead. He was purple and inflated, but the clothing was intact. Crazed and almost overcome, I threw myself on a bed, inert and awaiting death. My senses returned to me in perhaps an hour, when I beheld the roof burning. With sufficient strength left, my legs bleeding and covered with burns, I ran to Fonds-Saint-Denis, six kilometres from St. Pierre"
While he was initially believed to be insane when he arrived in the nearby town of Fort-de-France, Compere was eventually deputized and sent back to the ruins of Saint Pierre to help protect it from looters. He later survived two other deadly eruptions that occurred that year (he was one of the few survivors of the eruption that destroyed the town of Mourne Rouge on August 30). Withdrawing almost completely from the public eye after 1902, Leon Compere-Leandre lived in relative obscurity until his death in 1936.
The most well-known survivor, Louis-August Cyparis (also spelled Ludger Sylbaris), seemed an unlikely candidate for surviving one of the worst disasters in history. Believed to have been born in 1876, he was working as a labourer in Saint Pierre up to the time of the Mount Pelee disaster. Due to his fondness for rum, Cyparis was often in trouble with the law. After being involved in a drunken brawl, he was placed in an underground solitary confinement cell on the evening of May 7. This is probably what saved his life following the eruption since he was at least partially protected from the pyroclastic flow that passed overhead. As he would report later, he was waiting for his breakfast when his cell became extremely dark. Ash entered his cell through the door grating and he held his breath due to the intense heat. Although his clothes remained unsinged, his hands, arms, legs, and back were badly burned by the hot ash that managed to enter his cell. With only a container of water to drink, he managed to stay alive long enough for rescue parties to find him after four days. One American reporter who interviewed him while he was still hospitalized in critical condition described Cyparis as being "more frightfully burned, I think, than any man I had ever seen".
Cyparis eventually recovered and was granted a full pardon. In later life, he joined the Barnum and Bailey circus as a living attraction, touring the U.S. and telling the story of the eruption and his survival. Appearing under the title of "The Man Who Survived Doomsday" (a.k.a. "The Most Marvelous Man in the World"), Louis-August Cyparis had star billing with the circus. Not an inconsiderable achievement given the racial segregation of the time which made him the first man of African descent to star in the show. Often appearing in a replica of his Saint Pierre cell while he told his story to paying audiences, "The Prisoner of Saint Pierre" would also display his scars as proof. He died in 1929.
Even after the destruction of Saint Pierre, Martinique experienced a series of later eruptions and aftershocks including periodic ash clouds throughout much of 1902. A massive eruption occurred on May 20 but there were no further casualities (since there were no inhabitants left in Saint Pierre). American geologists arriving on Martinique on May 21 were astounded by the sheer devastation that the eruptions had caused. There was no evidence of lava flow and all of the death and destruction occurred due to superheated sulphur gas and ash alone (geologists now refer to this as a Pelean eruption). While there have been later Pelean eruptions (including the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in the U.S.), none of them came close to the loss of life that occurred in 1902.
After Saint Pierre's destruction, Fort de France became the economic hub of Martinique. Although the town of Saint Pierre was eventually rebuilt on the site of the old city, the old glory was never restored. Visitors to the small town of Saint-Pierre today will find only a huddle of houses surrounding a twin-spired church on the bay. There are only two main thoroughfares which are often deserted and the current population is 4,590 (based on the 2007 census). While still the district capital, Saint Pierre's current claim to fame rests on its designation as a "city of Art and History", the ruins of the old city, and the Volcanological Museum to commemorate the 1902 eruption.
The "Paris of the Antilles" is no more.
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