23. Being a Jerk Saved This Man’s Life
After a drunken brawl, Ludger Sylbaris was tossed into jail overnight for assault and held in solitary confinement. That was in a partially underground magazine with stone walls, which doubled as a cell. It had no windows, and its only ventilation was through tiny gratings on a door that faced away from the volcano. In short, Sylbaris’ solitary confinement cell was the most sheltered place in Saint Pierre on the morning of May 8th, 1902. That saved his life. When Mount Pelee erupted, it grew very dark in Sylbaris’ cell. A short while later, hot air and fine ash began to enter his cell through the door’s gratings. To stop it, he wetted his clothes with urine and used them to stuff the openings.
That helped a little, but still, it got hot enough to cause deep burns on much of his body. Four days after the horrific eruption, rescuers heard Sylbaris’ cries amidst the rubble of the prison. His miraculous survival garnered worldwide attention, and he got signed on by Barnum & Bailey to tour with its circus. His cell exists to this day, preserved in the rebuilt Saint Pierre. He was lucky, but many more were not. About 30,000 people were killed in the city and its vicinity, in what turned out to be the twentieth century’s deadliest volcanic eruption.
