Sparkling Candles On Champagne Bottles Ignited Fatal Swiss Bar Fire, Investigators Say

CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — Investigators said Friday they believe bright candles on champagne bottles sparked the deadly blaze when they got too close to the ceiling of a bar packed with New Year’s Eve revelers at a Swiss ski resort.

Authorities planned to investigate whether the soundproofing material on the ceiling complies with regulations and whether sparklers are allowed in the bar.

The candles, which were shooting upward sparks, were the same type of candles commonly found at parties, authorities said.

40 people died and 119 people were injured in the fire that broke out in the early hours of Thursday. I squeezed through the crowded Le Constellation bar Authorities said the incident took place in the Crans-Montana ski resort. happened one of the greatest tragedies In Swiss history.

Most of the injured were in their teens and mid-20s, police said.

Officials said they will also look at other security measures at the facility, including fire extinguishers and escape routes.

Valais region chief prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud warned of possible investigations if any criminal liability is found.

According to Frédéric Gisler, police commander of the Valais region, the injured included 71 Swiss citizens, 14 French and 11 Italians, as well as citizens of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Luxembourg, Belgium, Portugal and Poland. The nationality of 14 people is not yet clear.

Among the crowd was 16-year-old Parisian Axel Clavier, who said he felt as if he was drowning. Swiss alpine bar Where he had ringed in the new year with his friends and dozens of other people just moments before.

The young man escaped from the fire in the early hours of Thursday by forcibly opening the window where the table was located. One of Clavier’s friends was among the dead, and Clavier told the Associated Press that two or three more of his friends were missing hours after the disaster.

Late Thursday, mourners left candles and flowers at a meeting hall. impromptu memorial service near the bar. Hundreds of people prayed for the victims at the nearby Montana Station Church.

Pope Leo sent a telegram to the Swiss bishop of Zion on Friday, offering his condolences and praying that “the Lord would receive the deceased in his home of peace and light and support the courage of those who suffer in heart or body.”

There was an account on Instagram filled with photos of anonymous people; friends and relatives were begging for clues to their whereabouts.

“We have a lot of heroic actions of very strong solidarity right now,” Mathias Reynard, head of the Valais regional government, told RTS radio on Friday. He praised the work of emergency workers the day after the fire but added: “In the first minutes there were citizens and mostly young people — those who save lives with their courage.”

Clavier, a young Parisian, said he did not see the fire start, but saw waiters arriving with champagne bottles filled with burning sparklers.

Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV that they were inside and saw a male bartender lift a female bartender, who was holding a lit candle in a bottle, onto his shoulders. The flames spread and the wooden ceiling collapsed, they told the broadcaster.

One of the women described the crowds growing as people frantically tried to escape from the basement nightclub up the stairs and through a narrow door.

Another witness told BFMTV that people broke windows to escape the fire, some seriously injured, and panicked parents rushed to the scene in their cars to see if their children were trapped inside.

Gianni Campolo, a 19-year-old Swiss man who was in Crans-Montana on vacation, ran to the bar to help first responders after receiving a call from a friend who had escaped from the inferno. He described a scene of people trapped on the ground, badly injured and burned.

“I saw the horror and I don’t know what could be worse than that,” Campolo told TF1.

The severity of the burns made it difficult to identify the bodies and required families to provide DNA samples to authorities. In some cases, wallets and the identification documents inside were reduced to ashes in the flames.

Emanuele Galeppini, a promising 17-year-old Italian golfer who competes internationally, has been officially listed among Italy’s missing citizens. While his uncle, Sebastiano Galeppini, told the Italian news agency ANSA that his family was waiting for DNA tests, the Italian Golf Federation announced Galeppini’s death on its website.

With high-altitude ski runs rising nearly 3,000 meters (about 9,850 feet) in the heart of the snowy peaks and pine forests of the Valais region, Crans-Montana is a major destination for international alpine ski competitions. It also hosts the European Masters every August.

Leicester reported from Zion, Switzerland. Dazio reported from Berlin. Associated Press journalists Geir Moulson in Berlin, Graham Dunbar in Geneva, and Nicole Winfield and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed to this report.