Firefighters lay flowers on Friday near the sealed-off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, where a devastating fire ripped through a ski resort bar during New Year's celebrations.Baz Ratner/The Associated Press
Initial investigations suggest the fire that tore through a New Year’s Eve party at a bar in the Swiss resort town of Crans-Montana began when “fountain candle” sparklers attached to champagne bottles were raised near the ceiling.
“Everything suggests that the fire started from the burning candles or ‘Bengal lights’ that had been attached to champagne bottles. These went too close to the ceiling. From there, a rapid, very rapid and widespread conflagration ensued,” local prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud told a news conference Friday.
Authorities said they planned to look into whether sound-dampening material on the ceiling conformed with regulations and whether the candles, which give off a stream of upward-shooting sparks, were permitted for use in the bar.
On Friday morning, the first victim of the explosive fire at Le Constellation bar was identified as 16-year-old rising Italian golfer Emanuele Galeppini. The Italian Golf Federation paid tribute to the “young athlete who embodied passion and authentic values.”
Valais canton police chief Frédéric Gisler told the news conference that the death toll stands at 40, though Italian authorities earlier said 47 people had died. The efforts to identify the bodies and the injured is continuing, he said.
Of the 119 injured people, 113 have been formally identified, while the six others are as yet unknown, he said. Seventy-one are Swiss citizens, 14 French, 11 Italian and four Serb. One individual from each of Bosnia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland and Portugal are also among the injured, while 14 of the injured’s nationalities have not yet been confirmed.
Le Constellation turned into an explosive inferno about 90 minutes after midnight on New Year’s Eve. The bar, with a capacity of 300, according to the Crans-Montana website, was packed at the time, though it’s not known how many revelers were inside.
A photo circulated on X shows a small patch of flames forming directly above outstretched arms carrying bottles with sparklers inserted in them. The ceiling appears to be covered in acoustic foam. At that moment, the crowd seems unaware of the fire over their heads.
A video that appears to have been shot moments later shows a young man trying to beat back the spreading flames on the ceiling with a white jacket or T-shirt as loud music plays.
Subsequent video clips and photos show panic and chaos, as revelers try to escape via a single staircase, described by people at the bar as “narrow,” and make it upstairs, pouring or plunging onto the street. One video shows a man prying open a sliding glass door to allow a woman to escape. The skin on her bare shoulders and arms is red.
Contains disturbing content: Eyewitness video shows a fire taking hold in the ceiling at Le Constellation bar at Crans-Montana, Switzerland on New Year's Eve. Italian authorities have put the death toll from the blaze at 47.
The Globe and Mail
It was later revealed that there was a second staircase. “But you can imagine that during a blaze, with smoke, which within just a few moments makes it impossible for them to see … a majority of people were not able to find the exits,“ said Stéphane Ganzer, a regional health and safety official.
Ms. Pilloud said the investigation is looking at the acoustic foam to see whether it complied with regulations or was the source of the fire. “It is essential that we do not make any assumptions,” she said.
“The next steps of the investigation will focus in particular on the work carried out inside the bar, the materials utilized, the operating permits, the safety measures – by which I mean extinguishers, emergency exits and the resources to fight fires … the number of people on the site and the number of people the bar is permitted to receive,” she added.
Among bar, nightclub and music venue fires of recent decades, these were some of the deadliest
No criminal liability has been determined, she said. The owners of Le Constellation are a French couple identified in the Swiss, French and Italian press as Jacques Moretti, 49, and his wife, Jessica, 40, who are from Corsica. They reportedly bought the bar in 2015 and own other establishments in the area.
During a news conference Thursday afternoon, Ms. Pilloud said investigators were examining whether a “flashover” – the sudden ignition of combustible material – triggered an explosion.
People comfort each other outside the Le Constellation bar on Friday. It’s not known how many people were in the bar at the time of the fire.Stephanie Lecocq/Reuters
“There are a lot of circumstances to clarify, several hypotheses were put forward,” she said. “The theory we’re prioritizing is a flashover that provoked a rapid explosion.”
Firefighters describe a flashover – also known as rapid fire progress – as the moment when a localized burn suddenly envelopes an entire enclosed space as heat radiation raises temperatures quickly and flammable gases ignite. At that point, almost everything in the room is burning. The U.S. National Fire Protection Association says flashovers are one of the leading causes of firefighter deaths.
Swiss officials described the burns from the fire and explosion at Le Constellation as severe. Identifying the victims could take days and involve DNA tests and dental records, they said.
“All this work needs to be done because the information is so terrible and sensitive that nothing can be told to families unless we are 100 per cent sure,” said Mathias Reynard, the head of government for the Valais canton.
He said that most of the injured were in serious condition.
The Associated Press' John Leicester explains how many of the injured from the New Years Eve bar fire in Crans-Montana were transported to hospitals across Switzerland and neighbouring countries as the regional health facility hit capacity.
The Associated Press
Swiss emergency services mobilized 42 ambulances, 13 helicopters and 150 medical staff to deal with the crisis. Some of the victims were flown to hospitals in Italy and other countries because Valois hospitals were overwhelmed or not equipped to treat severe-burn victims.
By Thursday evening, mourners had left mounds of flowers and tributes near Le Constellation to remember the victims. Swiss President Guy Parmelin called the blaze “one of the worst tragedies that our country has experienced.” Flags in Bern, the capital, and elsewhere will fly at half-staff for the next five days.
Crans-Montana is a luxury ski resort that is often on the World Cup ski circuit. It attracts wealthy, international visitors, many from Italy and France.
People bring flowers and letters near the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on Friday.Antonio Calanni/The Associated Press
Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, said Thursday that six Italians are missing and 13 were in hospital being treated for burns. The French Foreign Affairs Ministry said nine French citizens were among the injured, with eight missing. One Australian was injured. Global Affairs Canada said Thursday it was not aware of any Canadian victims.
Most of the patrons of Le Constellation were teenagers or young adults. One of them, Axel Clavier, 16, told reporters there was “total chaos” inside the bar and that one of his friends died. He did not see the fire start, he said, but remembers seeing waitresses enter the room with sparklers stuffed into champagne bottles.
As he felt himself suffocating, he was able to push himself upstairs, where he used a table to break a window, allowing others to escape. “I’m still in shock,” he said.
Two women told French broadcaster BFM TV that they saw a male bartender lifting a female bartender on his shoulders as she held a lighted candle.
With reports from the Associated Press and Reuters