A city ignored the warning signs and a volcano killed it in minutes

In May 1902, Mount Pelee erupted on the Caribbean island of Martinique, sending a superheated cloud of gas and ash down onto the port town of Saint-Pierre in under two minutes. Nearly 30,000 people died, making it the deadliest volcanic eruption of the 20th century. Of the town's residents, only two are confirmed to have survived, including a prisoner protected by his cell's thick walls.

— Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, The Day the World Ended — 1969
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