First four victims of Swiss bar fire identified as two women, aged 16 and 21, and two men, aged 16 and 18

The first four victims of a bar fire in Switzerland were identified as two women, aged 16 and 21, and two men, aged 16 and 18.

The four victims were the first people identified by police following the New Year’s Eve fire at Le Constellation in the Alpine town of Crans-Montana in the canton of Valais, which killed at least 40 people and injured 119 others.

Further details, including their names, have not yet been released, but police said the bodies have now been returned to their families.

Many of the injuries, many serious, occurred as the fire engulfed the crowded bar in the early hours of Thursday.

Swiss authorities described the fire as a probable flare, meaning it triggered the release of flammable gases that could ignite violently.

Much suspicion has already focused on the pitted foam acoustic insulation that covers the ceiling of the basement bar, ignited by a sparkler held aloft over a champagne bottle and then spreading with terrifying ferocity.

Eyewitnesses described the panic that ensued as revelers attempted to escape from the basement nightclub area up stairs and through a narrow door, causing the crowd to swell.

Swiss authorities said Jacques Moretti, 49, who owns the bar, and his wife Jessica, 40, could face manslaughter charges over the tragedy if safety standards or fire precautions were lacking.

Footage from the evening showed a brave reveler trying to extinguish the first flames as flames spread across the wooden ceiling of the cramped basement bar in southwestern Switzerland.

Despite their best efforts, the fire would soon engulf the crowded basement, climb up the narrow wooden stairs, and unleash explosions so deafening that residents feared a terrorist attack.

Speaking publicly for the first time on Friday, the Morettis emphasized that all laws and regulations were complied with and claimed that the bar had been checked by safety inspectors three times in the last 10 years.

“Everything was done according to the rules,” Jacques Moretti, 49, told La Tribune de Genève newspaper. ‘We can neither sleep nor eat. We’re not okay’.

He denied reports that the stairs leading to the main exit from the basement where the fire started were too narrow, that non-fire retardant materials were used in the furniture, or that soundproofing foam was used in the ceiling.

‘We will do everything we can to clarify the reasons. We are doing everything we can. “Our lawyers are also involved.”