Jemma’s crewAnd
Gabriela Pomeroy
Around 40 people died in a fire that ravaged a bar in a ski resort in southern Switzerland, police said. Another 115 people were injured, many of them “seriously”.
The fire broke out around 1:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) during New Year’s celebrations at a bar called Le Constellation in Crans-Montana.
Authorities investigating the incident have not confirmed any cause, but have categorically ruled out an attack.
People from several countries have been affected. Regional police commander Frédéric Gisler said the priority in the coming days was to identify the deceased “so that their bodies can be returned quickly” to their families.
Thirteen helicopters, 42 ambulances and 150 rescuers were sent overnight to the scene of the fire in the Valais region, which is very popular with tourists.
Most of the injured suffered serious burns and 60 people were transferred to Sion hospital, in Valais, including a “significant number” in critical condition, regional governor Mathias Reynard said.
Its intensive care unit was at capacity and Reynard said the local community needed to take extra precautions to avoid needing unnecessary hospital treatment.
“We are painfully aware that identifying the bodies, as well as the injured, may still take a terrible time for the families involved,” Reynard added.
Some people were transported to hospitals in other Swiss cities, including Lausanne and Zurich, which have specialized burn units.
A spokesperson for Lausanne University Hospital said they were treating 22 patients with burns, while Zurich University Hospital said they were treating 12 patients for burns.
Some patients have been transferred to Geneva University Hospitals where they are being treated for serious “third degree” burns, and are “very young… between 15 and 25 years old”, Dr Robert Larribau told the BBC’s World Tonight programme.
“The fire broke out with such intensity that the burns could be internal. People breathed toxic smoke into their lungs,” said Dr. Larribau.
The Italian Foreign Ministry told the BBC that 16 Italian nationals are currently missing and between 12 and 15 others are in hospital.
The French Foreign Ministry said eight of its citizens were missing and it could not rule out that French nationals were among the dead.
French media reported that at least two of the injured were French nationals.
Three Italian nationals are being evacuated to Milan’s Niguarda hospital, where there is a burn unit, Italian adviser Guido Bertolaso said.
They have burns on “30 to 40 percent of their body,” he told reporters, and they remain intubated, but “the fact that they can be moved is a good sign.”
The precise number of dead and injured is not yet known, nor their nationalities, but the authorities have confirmed that several nationalities were involved.
Speaking at a news conference Thursday evening, officials said they did not know how many people were in the bar when the fire broke out.
State Councilor Stéphane Ganzer described the bar as having a “young and festive population” during New Year’s Eve.
Reuters
Attorney General Béatrice Pilloud indicated that an investigation was underway “to identify the circumstances which caused this dramatic situation”.
At the press conference, she was asked about rumors that champagne bottles with flares may have started the fire and whether the stairs were “very narrow.”
She responded that she could not confirm anything while the investigation was ongoing.
Ms Pilloud said the stairs appeared narrow, but investigations would assess whether they met requirements.
She said “several hypotheses” about the cause of the fire had been put forward, and that the favored theory was that of a “widespread fire causing a conflagration” – a large fire causing a lot of damage, rather than an explosion.
Several witnesses were interviewed, she said, and phones were also recovered for analysis.
“At no time is there any question of any attack,” she said.
Work is underway to identify the victims and return the bodies to the families as quickly as possible, Ms Pilloud said, adding: “To achieve this, there is important work to be done. And this important work will require the closure of the neighborhood.”
Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, said it would take weeks to identify the dead.
A helpline has been set up for families: +41 848 112 117
This fire constitutes “one of the worst tragedies that our country has known,” Swiss President Guy Parmelin told the press.
Local people gathered Thursday evening to pay their respects to the dead and injured at a vigil at Montana Station Church, and floral tributes were laid near the scene of the fire.
Crans-Montana is a luxury ski resort, famous in the 1980s for hosting the Ski World Cup.
The Constellation, which has been around for decades, has an upstairs equipped with TV screens where people go to watch football games, and a large bar downstairs for drinking and dancing.
The British Foreign Office said its “thoughts are with all those injured and killed in this terrible tragedy” and that consular staff were ready to provide support to all affected British nationals.
King Charles said he and his wife, Queen Camilla, were “greatly saddened” to learn of the fire, and that it was “absolutely heartbreaking that a night of celebration for young people and families had turned into such a nightmarish tragedy”.
French President Emmanuel Macron said France was welcoming the injured from Crans-Montana into its hospitals.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was working with Swiss authorities to provide medical aid to victims through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
