The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1902-05-16

them. When the fire came we were
going to our posts-we are engineers
to weigh anchor ard get out. When
we came up we found the ship afire aft
and fought it forward until 3 o'clock.
when the Suchet came to our rescue.
We were then building a raft"
Ben Benson, the ~arpenter of the
Roraima, said: II was IN deck.
amids hips, When I heard an explosion.
The captain ordered me to up-anchor.
l got to the wind'os IS, bue when the ire
came / went to the forecastle and got
my buds When 1 came out I talked
to Capt. Muggah and others. They
had beer on the bridge. The captain
Was Horribly Burned.
He had inhaled flames and wanted to
jump into the sea. I tried to make him
take a life preserver. The captain, who
was undressed, jumped overheard and
held onto a line for a while. Then he
disappeared"
Gus Under, the quartermaster Of the
steamer, who is horribly burned, and
can scarcely talk, confirmed this.
From the Italian ship Terese Lovico
several men were saved, but they are
In a frigbtful state, except Jean Louis
Prudent of st. Pierre. Although on
deck and unprotected, he was little
burned.
Prudent says there was first an awful
noise of explosion and then, right away,
a cyclone of smoke and fire, but such
was the poisonous. choking nature or
the smoke that 1t burned worse than
the fire. When it struck people they
fell dead. The cyclone of gas tore the
masts out Of ships, blew others up and
sunk some of them. Soon afterward
came a wave of fire bigger than the
smoke Cloud. "That cloud" continued
Prudent, was bigger, it seemed, than
the mountain.
Burned Everywhere ut Once.
1.-THE fire burned the city everywhere
at once. Near me / saw only dead men;
but on shore I saw men and women
rushing back and forth amid the flames
for an hour. They would not run n
Then came that choking smoke and
they would drop like dead flies. The
explosion, smok and fire all GANG and
went in three minutes, but the city
burned for three hours. Then every
house was finished and nothing alive
was left. Some men from the sinking
ships got ashore but they were burned
w NhCIC. AN Io I'LL -S
earthquakes; but big o were
rained down and Are fell k rain for
a long time
The village Of Urine, south Of st.
Pierre, was almost entirely burned and
almost all the inhabitants were killed.
One Of the survivors Of Urine. who will
die, Sc VS. the sea-. boiling hot, invaded
the land.
An evidence Of the swiftness of the
onslaught of fire is found In the fact
that none of the victims was blinded.
although the eyalids of most of them
are nearly burned through. No one
knows how the passengers OF the
steamers persisted and 1t is Impossible
to get a full list of the vessels lost.
The cable repair ship Grappler was
lost With all on board, as was the
French vessel Tamaya. There were
eighteen or twenty vessels in the road
stead at the time Of the disaster.
Coast Villages Destroyed.
The coast villages near st. Pierre
were destroyed simultaneously with
that town. The, entire island. up to
within miles of Fort-de-France. is Gov
cred with mud n ashes. The cattle
of the island are either all dead or dy-
ing. The streams have dried up or are
polluted. Thousands of persons are
fiocking to Fort-de-F France Unless re-
lief is promptly sent famine Is immi-
nent, and there is urgent need for the
services of the Red Cross society.
The French cable line via Europe Is
now the only means of Geographic COM
munication with the outside world.
The demands made upon this line are
extremely heavy.
The central and southern parts Of st.
Pierre are still burning. The country
side is deserted. Every family on he
island is mourning the loss of relatives
or friends. Business is at a complete
~standstill. st. Pierre was the financial
and provisioning center of the island.
Mount Pelee is still In eruption, and
ever more violent and disastrous
lions may follow. Volcanic ashes have
fallen against the wind on the ISLANDS
of Dominica and st. Vincent.