Switzerland to hold five days of mourning after 40 killed in resort fire | Switzerland

Switzerland will mourn for five days after an “unprecedented” fire killed nearly 40 people and injured 115 in a crowded bar celebrating a New Year’s Eve party at a ski resort in the Crans-Montana Alps.

The country’s president, Guy Parmelin, described the fire as one of the most traumatic events in Swiss history. “This was a tragedy on an unknown scale,” he said, paying tribute to “the many young lives lost and disrupted.”

The president added that Switzerland owes it to young people whose “projects, hopes and dreams” are abandoned to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.

Eyewitnesses said the fire broke out at 1.30am after sparklers or flares were thrown into champagne bottles in the town’s Le Constellation bar. Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV that a bartender was carrying one of the female staff members holding one of the bottles.

The flames set the ceiling on fire. Within seconds, flames spread and engulfed a crowded basement full of revelers. Many were young. One of the women described the crowds growing as people desperately tried to escape down a narrow staircase.

Ulysse Brozzo, 16, an instructor at a local ski school, said some of her friends were at the club at the time.

He said he had spoken to some people who were safe, but had not yet heard from others he knew were inside when the fire broke out. A friend of a friend was in a coma in Sion hospital. “This is an absolute tragedy,” he said. “There were hundreds of people inside”

Video posted by survivors shows the fire growing just above the bar. Other images showed horrific scenes of orange flames rising from the ground floor hall and several people lying motionless in the street.

Valais cantonal prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud said she could not comment on reports that burning candles caused the fire. Confirming that the basement stairs were very narrow, he said: “An investigation is underway. The exact circumstances of what happened will be determined.” He said it was too early to draw any conclusions about emergency exits.

Frédéric Gisler, the canton’s police commander, said officers arrived at the scene at 1.32am, two minutes after the emergency call was received. He described the situation as “unprecedented”. A red alert was given by sending many fire brigades, 42 ambulances and 13 helicopters to the region.

“Their initial mission was to provide care to the victims and direct them to various hospitals. Firefighters also secured the area,” he said.

The injured were sent to hospitals in Sion, Lausanne, Geneva and Zurich. Speaking on his first day as Switzerland’s new president, Parmelin said some of the survivors were “seriously injured”. In addition to severe burns, his lungs were damaged. It was stated that he treated 22 patients between the ages of 16 and 26 at the Lausanne University Hospital.

Claire Charmet, the hospital’s chief executive, said: Eight of these were resuscitated on arrival. They were now being treated in critical and special care units. “This will be a long and intense process that will take several weeks, maybe even months,” he said.

Investigators now have the daunting task of identifying the victims and obtaining DNA samples from their families. Some of those caught in the fire were visiting the ski resort from neighboring countries. Italy’s foreign ministry said 16 of its citizens were missing and 12 people were among the injured.

The morning after the tragedy, mourners left flowers as the two women hugged and cried in front of a police cordon outside Le Constellation. The club, which was frequented by young people and tourists, was surrounded by white police tents.

Shortly before 1 p.m., a Swiss police forensic team entered the restricted area. Behind the building, a block of flats also called Le Constellation had windows shattered where firefighters were trying to evacuate smoke from the fire.

Crans-Montana is a lively resort town of around 10,000 people, located high in the canton of Valais in the Swiss Alps, overlooking the famous Matterhorn mountain across the valley. Unlike nearby Verbier, which attracts an affluent English-speaking crowd, Crans-Montana is mostly popular with wealthy Europeans.

But Le Constellation itself was more of a cheap and cheerful bar for young people and tourists.

Brozzo, the ski instructor, said the venue spanned two floors, with a bar on the main floor and narrow stairs leading to a basement nightclub below, where he speculated it was possible for people to become trapped and incapacitated by smoke inhalation.

He said hookah pipes can be smoked. “People say the charcoal in the bong can spill and cause a fire,” Brozzo said.

Swiss officials described the fire as an ‘epidemic’ generalization. The French firefighting term describes how a fire can trigger the release of flammable gases. These then ignite violently, causing what English-speaking firefighters would call flashover or backdraft.

Speaking on Thursday morning, Mathias Reynard, president of the canton of Valais, said what was supposed to be a moment of celebration had “turned into a nightmare”. He said he was very sorry for the tragedy. “I cannot hide from you that we are all shaken by what happened overnight in Crans,” he said at a press conference.

According to reports in the French press, Le Constellation opened in 2015 and can accommodate up to 300 people inside, while 40 people can sit on the heated terrace. The bar’s Facebook and Instagram pages appear to have been deleted and unavailable.

The owner of Dédé clothing store, just opposite Le Constellation, said the place was a popular destination for young people; Among them were the children of his friends, who drank frequently from the age of 14 onwards.

François, a 17-year-old ski instructor who said he often parties at the bar, said that New Year’s parties are known to be more lax in terms of checking the age of those who enter the bar.

The town relies heavily on a largely European clientele who come to ski, dine at Michelin-starred restaurants and shop at Moncler and Louis Vuitton stores. It has approximately 3,000 hotel rooms and 10,000 residents.

Authorities in the region, where there are many tourists skiing on the tracks, called on the public to be careful in the coming days. They warned them to avoid accidents that could require already depleted medical resources.