The ski resort of Crans-Montana, in the Swiss canton of Valais, remains in shock after the brutal fire in a bar on New Year’s Eve which, according to an initial report, left 40 dead and 115 injured, most with serious burns. A day after the tragedy, the authorities continue to investigate the origin of the incident, even if everything indicates that it could be a flare which ignited the roof of the premises and that the fire spread at full speed.
The testimonies of the young people who were inside reinforce this hypothesis. In one of the videos filmed on site and broadcast by the French press, we see several flares lit on bottles of champagne and one of them lights up the roof of the premises. This version of the origin of the event has not yet been confirmed by the Swiss authorities. Investigators continue to analyze the interior of the Le Constellation establishment, where the tragedy occurred, and known in the neighborhood because it is frequented by very young people.
The urgency now is to be able to identify the victims as quickly as possible, many of whom are foreigners, because it is a very touristy ski resort. At present, the names of 13 hospitalized Italians have been given, six others are still missing, nine French people injured and eight people unaccounted for. “At present, we cannot exclude that there are French victims in the fire,” the French Foreign Ministry said.
The injured were transferred to hospitals in Zurich, Lausanne and Geneva, as those in the region were saturated, as well as to health centers in France, Italy and Germany. Poland also offered hospital beds to the injured. Of the 115 hospitalized, there are “between 80 and a hundred who are very serious,” declared the head of Security for the canton of Valais, Stéphane Ganzer, on RTL television. He added that most of them could not yet be identified due to the severity of the burns. “The toll is terrible and could get worse,” he said.
It will also take days to determine the identities of the victims, Ganzer warned at a news conference Thursday. Several French people specializing in severe burns could help with the work, explained Matthias Reynard, president of the Valais Government Council. He stressed that many health workers who were on vacation “came back to lend a hand. We are all on the front line” to try to identify the deceased and be able to hand them over to their families.
Among parents, the anxiety “is unbearable”, illustrated Laetitia, the mother of a 16-year-old boy, Arthur, who was inside the premises and of whom she has had no news. “I’ve been looking for my son everywhere, in all the hospitals for 30 hours. It’s an unbearable wait,” he told the BFM channel. “I don’t know which hospital or morgue he is in,” he said. A crisis unit has been set up a few meters from the bar, where relatives of the victims and the missing are cared for.
The fire broke out at half past one in the morning and caused a strong explosion, according to testimonies confirmed by the authorities. The fire spread quickly, trapping the young people inside. According to those present, the exit staircase was very narrow in the premises, which only had one emergency exit despite a capacity of 300 people. Many tried to escape by breaking the windows of the premises.
About The Author
