On July 4 the resistance of the Psariots ended with a last stand at the town's old fort of Palaiokastro (alternative name Mavri Rachi, literally "black ridge").[4] Hundreds of soldiers and also women and children had taken refuge there when a Turkish force of 2000 stormed the fort. The refugees first threw a white flag[12] with the words "Ἐλευθερία ἤ Θάνατος" ("Eleftheria i Thanatos", "Freedom or Death"). Then, the moment the Turks entered the fort, the local Antonios Vratsanos lit a fuse to the gunpowder stock, in an explosion that killed the town's inhabitants along with their enemies — thus remaining faithful to their flag to their death.[4] A French officer who heard and saw the explosion compared it to a volcanic eruption of Vesuvius.[4]