Volcano in paradise

Half the 11'000 islanders left Montserrat

click here to watch our interview with Phil Davison.

Phil Davison is a foreign correspondent who has written an eye-witness account of the volcanic eruption that devastated Montserrat in the late 1990s.

In 1995 he was working for the Independent as its Latin/Central America and Caribbean correspondent. He heard the volcano was "venting", went to see it and covered the first surprise explosion.

As a result he had to throw away his laptop because it was filled with volcanic ash, then had a narrow escape while trying to reach the island by helicopter.

His only comfort was having a local bishop on board "if he goes I go" but it didn't stop him from watching eruptions close up wearing a hard hat; however he kept his car engine running and pointed it downhill.

So having experienced all this, Phil decided he ought to tell the story of the people of Montserrat - many of whom lost everything.

In 1995 the paradise island, a tiny British Crown Colony in the Caribbean, has reggae and calypso in the air and cricket on the village greens.

The book opens on St Patrick's day 17 March 1995. Nobody knew 'The Mountain', the collective name for the Soufriere Hills, was a volcano, particularly an active one.

Suddenly on 18 July 1995 it started steaming. As the eruptions grew progressively worse, international experts descended on the island, trying to analyse the terrifying giant.

A stream of refugees moved the other way. Eventually the capital itself, Plymouth, was buried under burning clouds of red-hot rock and ash.

The capital Plymouth was buried in ash

The eruptions were made worse because they contained not lava but the pyroclastic flow which caused serious problems. This is when lava dome collapses under pressure from below, sending red hot rock, toxic gases and ash down. It was the same thing that destroyed Pompeii.

Those caught in the eruptions - people, wildlife farm animals or abandoned pets had little chance.

Britain and the tiny local government of 4 ministers decided to clear the southern half of the island where most people lived, the final evacuation took place on the 3 April 1996 but the worst day was 25 June when 19 people died.

The capital Plymouth was buried and many refugees crammed into shelters, their homes destroyed.

Of the original 11,000 islanders more than half of them left and many came to England.

Today, the volcano still erupts but people in the north are trying to rebuild their lives without much help from Britain or anyone else.

Biography

Phil Davison has pretty much been there done that over the past few years. He always wanted to be a foreign correspondent.

He almost always works alone. He covered Carlos the Jackal's takeover of the Opec HQ in 1975.

During the Gulf War he travelled with Americans and was the first British journalist to breach the minefields when western forces retook Kuwait.

In Croatia, he was asked by his editor, Andreas Whittam-Smith to get into Dubrovnik and he did - first to report the residents' plight, and was then shot in the leg by a Serbian sniper.

During the Iran/Iraq war he was bombed by Iraqi planes with mustard gas but escaped.

His career has also seen him experience the Mexico City earthquake; a volcanic mudslide in Colombia in 1985 which buried 23,000 people - he says it was the worst sight he ever saw, the first journalist to reach the area and waded in and saved people.

Volcano in Paradise by Phil Davison, published by Methuen, price £14.99 ISBN 0413771849