Isra, Matteo and Léon went out on the 31st to celebrate the end of the year. They wanted to go to the Le Constellation bar to meet some of their friends, but it was full and there was no room, so they eventually headed to the central square of Crans-Montana, a bucolic village in the Alps next to a ski resort in the canton of Valais in southern Switzerland. At dawn, in the place where these boys were, a rumor spread that a fire had broken out. They approached, because they were a few meters away. “We saw fires, many ambulances, people burned in the street and others running in all directions,” says 16-year-old Isra.
The tragedy shook this city, where the lights of the Christmas trees still shine, but where late Thursday afternoon dozens of people, including many teenagers, came in silence with bouquets of flowers to pay tribute to the 40 victims and 130 injured recorded so far by the authorities.
The Constellation, a bar run by two French people from Corsica, is an establishment especially “for young people, 15 or 16 years old”, the testimonies agree, as they had a friend inside. It’s the place where a whole generation of children went to have fun before reaching the age of majority. The three friends, who live in a neighboring town, have some “who are in hospital with burns and one in an induced coma”. “You have just been transferred to the hospital in Lyon, France,” Matteo warns them after receiving a call. There’s another friend they haven’t heard from.
The year that began ended in the most abrupt way possible in Crans-Montana, both for the neighbors and for those who have a second home and were away for the holidays. This is the case for Alessio and James, who live in the Swiss city of Lausanne. They arrived on the 31st and Thursday afternoon they were around the bar to pay tribute to the victims, including some friends whose fate they do not know.
They frequented this place when they were young, but “at 20, we go elsewhere,” they say. They left the bar they were in to meet friends who remained inside the burned bar. In tears, James recounts what he saw: “People were screaming like they were going to die, they were running around and breaking windows, it was pure chaos. There were people lying on the ground.”
“We have a lot of friends who were there and about whom we have no news. We don’t know if they were burned inside,” says this 20-year-old young man. “You can’t describe what we saw and what happened. It’s not normal for something to happen here, in a place in Switzerland, where we have some security. What could have gone wrong?” Alessio said.
Justine and her sister Flavia, who live in the neighboring town of Sierre, should have left after the bell. “In the end, I didn’t do it and I stayed in town. My lucky star told me not to come,” says the second. At five in the morning, a friend called her to tell her what had happened. He has another acquaintance in the hospital, burned, but “she will recover”. His mother took part in the rescue operations and his stepfather is one of the firefighters in the vast system put together to put out the flames.
The Constellation bar can accommodate around 300 people. “It’s true that it’s a bit of a gloomy place, where you can feel stuck,” explains Gabriella, another 15-year-old teenager, resident of the neighborhood, who also left flowers. The authorities are maintaining the closure of the street where the nightclub is located.
Crans-Montana, at 1,500 meters above sea level, has a ski resort and has a population of around 10,000, although that number doubles in high season. Bernard Schumacher is French and has a house there: “It’s a very happy season, with good snow, full of life. Last night I woke up because I heard the sound of a helicopter, but I discovered it this morning. People come here to party. Nobody expected an accident like this in Crans-Montana. We were traumatized by what happened all morning. We always celebrate the New Year here, but this one is not starting well,” he said yesterday afternoon.
He also wonders if in this bar “the security measures could have failed. Even if zero risk does not exist, these are young people who were trapped by the smoke and flames”, he underlines.
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