The first victim of the fire which killed more than 40 people in a bar in Switzerland was identified this Friday (2) as Emanuele Galeppin, a 16-year-old Italian. The young man was a golfer living in Dubai.
Investigators have begun identifying charred bodies from an incident at a New Year’s party in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana. There are now 47 confirmed deaths.
The burns were so severe for many of the young patrons at Le Constellation bar that authorities there said it could take several days to name all the victims of the fire, which also left more than 100 injured, many seriously.
Parents of missing young people have made desperate appeals for news of their children as foreign embassies raced to check whether their citizens were among the victims of one of modern Switzerland’s worst tragedies. According to Itamaraty, no Brazilians are on the list.
“I’ve been looking for my son for 30 hours. The wait is unbearable,” Laetitia, the mother of missing 16-year-old Arthur, told BFM TV, saying she was desperate to know if he was alive or dead and where. “If he’s in the hospital, I don’t know which one. If he’s in the morgue, I don’t know which one. If my son is alive, he’s alone in the hospital and I can’t be by his side.”
Authorities have warned that it will take time to name the victims or confirm the exact number of deaths, as many bodies are badly burned. “All this work is necessary because the information is so terrible and sensitive that nothing can be said to families without 100% certainty,” said Mathias Reynard, head of government of the canton (equivalent to a Brazilian state) of Valais. Experts use dental samples and DNA for identifications, he said.
The origin of the fire is still uncertain. Swiss authorities say it appears to be an accident and not an attack. Survivor accounts and videos on social media suggest the bar’s basement ceiling may have caught fire when lit candles got too close.
A resort frequented by celebrities and winter sports professionals, Crans-Montana regularly hosts the Ski World Cup. British actor Roger Moore, who played James Bond in the 007 films, lived there, now with a population of 10,000.
“It could have been us,” Emma, 18, from Geneva, said outside the secluded bar. “There was a huge queue, so we decided not to go on New Year’s Eve. We were so lucky. Even though we are alive and well, we are in shock. It’s a trauma even for us. I see the missing people and they are all our age.”
Behind the police cordon, the bodies of some victims were still in the bar, authorities said, promising to work around the clock to identify all those who died in the fire.
Elisa Sousa, 17, said she was at the bar at the time of the fire, but ended up spending the night at a family reunion. “And honestly, I’m going to have to thank my mother a hundred times for not letting me go,” he said during the vigil for the victims. “Because only God knows where I would be right now.”
Italy and France are among the countries whose disappearances have been confirmed, and the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, will visit Crans-Montana this Friday, according to the Italian ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado. Australia reported that one of its citizens was injured.
Of the 112 injured, all but five have been identified, Cornado said. Six Italians are still missing and 13 are hospitalized; three were repatriated on Thursday and three others on Friday.
The fire was remembered in Brazil for its similarity to the tragedy at the Kiss nightclub in 2013 in Santa Maria (RS), where 242 people died after the use of pyrotechnic devices during a show set fire to the ceiling, the material of which contributed to the rapid spread of the fire and released toxic smoke.
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