The volcano is located in the north of Fort-de-France Island. It is stunningly enormous as, for instance, it is 1,300 meters high, and its base diameter exceeds 15 kilometers.

The volcano of Mount Pelee is rather dangerous: it is considered a stratovolcano since, for four centuries in a row, it has been intermittently erupting and causing irreparable damage to people and the environment.

The first severe volcanic eruption occurred in the mid-17th century. After about a century and a half, it woke up again, terrifying the locals. A century later, history repeated itself. During the eruption in the mid-19th century, the volcano wreaked destruction over the island: it claimed the lives of hundreds of the locals and covered the town at its foot with a thick layer of volcanic rock.

However, the most devastating damage the volcano inflicted on the area happened in 1902: it wiped out the town of Saint-Pierre along with its citizens. Only two people managed to escape and survive in the tragedy, and both by a happy coincidence: one of them was a prisoner locked in an underground jail. And the second worked as a shoemaker and lived on the edge of town; the volcano failed to reach it.

The volcano of Mount Pelee was so destructive that it wrecked almost all the ships moored in the local harbor during the eruption. Miraculously, only one escaped the disaster. But the misadventures did not end there either: twelve days later, the volcano re-erupted. As a result, the rescuers and engineers who had come to the island on a rescue mission fell victims to the scorching magma. In total, 2,000 people were harmed.

But that was not the end: in the same year, another major eruption hit the island. This time, the lava spread so extensively that it not only completely covered Saint-Pierre but also affected the neighboring villages. Unfortunately, casualties couldn’t again be avoided: about 800 people could not run away from the island.