Survivors, friends and family members of people killed in a fire at a Swiss Alpine bar in Crans-Montana described the chaos of the night and the search for missing relatives as investigators worked to determine what sparked the blaze.
Authorities said the fire tore through the busy Le Constellation bar at the ski resort during New Year celebrations and killed 40 people, while more than 100 others were injured. Regional officials and other figures made public remarks in multiple languages, reflecting Switzerland’s multilingual tradition, in the aftermath of the disaster.
Investigators said they believe sparkling candles placed on top of champagne bottles ignited the fatal fire when the candles came too close to the crowded bar’s ceiling.
Laetitia Brodard, searching for her 16-year-old son, Arthur, told reporters Friday in Crans-Montana: “I’m looking everywhere. The body of my son is somewhere. I want to know where my child is and be by his side. Wherever that may be, be it in the intensive care unit or the morgue.”
Another witness, Marc-Antoine Chavanon, 14, told AP that he rushed to the bar to help people who had been brought out. He said, “We were bringing people out, people were collapsing. We were doing everything we could to save them, we helped as many as we could. We saw people screaming, running,” and described seeing a friend struggling to get out while burned.
At the regional hospital in Sion that took in dozens of injured people, general director Eric Bonvin said the hardest part of survival was the uncertainty families faced afterward. He told AP, “It was hard to live through for everyone. Also, probably because everyone was asking themselves, ‘Was my child, my cousin, someone from the region at this party?’” Bonvin added that the bar was “very well known as somewhere to celebrate the new year,” and that seeing young people arrive is “always traumatic.”
Gianni Campolo, a Swiss 19-year-old who was vacationing in Crans-Montana, told France’s TF1 television, “I have seen horror, and I don’t know what else would be worse than this.” His father, Paolo Campolo, described helping to open an emergency exit behind the bar after finding it while navigating heavy smoke. He told BFM TV that he found an emergency exit behind the bar, opened a glass door, and said “That’s when several bodies fell.” He added that volunteers immediately pulled them out, saying: “I think we had to pull out about ten bodies in total.”
As officials continued identifying victims, Valais region’s attorney general Beatrice Pilloud told reporters Friday during a news conference in Sion: “The priority today is truly placed on identification, in order to allow the families to begin their mourning.”
Pope Leo also sent a telegram to the bishop of Sion, according to AP, saying he “wishes to express his compassion and concern to the relatives of the victims.” The Pope said he prays that “the Lord will welcome the deceased into His abode of peace and light” and “will sustain the courage of those who suffer in their hearts or in their bodies.”
In comments carried by Swiss media, cantonal head of government Mathias Reynard said the first response came from the public. Speaking to RTS radio, Reynard said, “In the first minutes, it was citizens — and in large part young people — who saved lives with their courage.” Swiss President Guy Parmelin, speaking on his first day in the position that changes hands annually, told reporters Thursday that “Switzerland is a strong country not because it is sheltered from drama, but because it knows how to face them with courage and a spirit of mutual help.”