all my lovely british people out there...

...Is the explosion of Mt. Saint Helens an okay reference to make, when writing Doctor Who fic, or is too American? I'm not assuming that people would know any details - because hell, that doesn't happen in America either - but if I walked up to someone in London and said, Mt. Saint Helens, would they get the essential gist of it, that I was talking about explosive destruction on a large scale? And if not, what would be the UK equivalent of a super-large, super-hot disaster be? Have there been any explosions / great fires recently?