A local Swiss prosecutor has said the fire inside Le Constellation nightclub in the ski resort of Crans-Montana appears to have started from “sparklers put on bottles of champagne that was moved too close to the ceiling”.
About 40 people were killed in the blaze that engulfed the bar, which was packed with mainly young revellers celebrating the new year, and about 119 others were injured, many of them seriously.
The nationalities of the injured have been released. They include 71 Swiss, 14 French, 11 Italians, as well as one individual each from Bosnia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland and Portugal.
On the likely cause of the fire, Valais attorney general Beatrice Pilloud said “everything leads us to believe that the fire was started from sparkling candles or sparklers that were put on bottles of champagne that were moved too close to the ceiling.”
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“From that a blaze began very quickly ... There are videos that have been analysed; there are several people who have been interviewed and reports have been made.”
Photographs circulating online appear to show the moment the ceiling caught fire as sparklers were held aloft. The ceiling appeared to be clad in foam soundproofing panels.
A Swiss corporate security and fire expert, Markus Knorr, told the Swiss outlet 20 Minutes that the foam panels “burn fast and burst into flames” unless they have been properly fireproofed, meaning fire can “spread extremely fast, because they are mounted horizontally”.
[ ‘I’ll never forget the screams, the smell, the looks of pure fear’Opens in new window ]
Concerns have also been raised about the number of exits from the bar’s basement, which was used for special events and reportedly accessible from the ground floor only by a single staircase described by several survivors as narrow.
Ms Pilloud, the Valais public prosecutor, said the investigation’s next steps will focus on materials used in the bar, the operating permits, safety measures such as fire extinguishers and emergency exits and the number of people in attendance, she said.
While the names of the dead and injured have yet to be officially released, Emanuele Galeppini, a 16-year-old Italian international golfer, was the first of several victims to be identified locally.
Italian media reported that he had gone to the Constellation bar with two friends, who managed to escape the fire and were taken to nearby hospitals.
Investigators have said it could take days to identify all the victims who died, while many of the injured were in a life-threatening condition.
The head of the Valais regional government, Mathias Reynard, said experts were using dental and DNA samples in the “terrible and sensitive” task of identifying the badly burned bodies. “Nothing can be told to the families unless we are 100 per cent sure,” he said.
Ms Pilloud added that “significant resources” had been put in place to “identify the victims and return the bodies to families as fast as possible”. The canton’s police chief, Frédéric Gisler, said the process could take several days.
Stéphane Ganzer, a regional health and safety official, told RTL radio that several of the injured had not yet been identified, either because they were not carrying ID or because it had been lost in the fire, adding that many were also a critical condition.
“I think a large number of the injured, maybe between 80 and 100, are in a life-threatening condition,” Mr Ganzer said on Friday. “When 15 per cent or more of an adult’s body has third-degree burns, there is a risk of death in the days and hours that follow.”
Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, told Italian media that 47 people had been killed in the blaze, but Mr Ganzer said on Friday he was “surprised” by that figure. “This is not the same number that we have,” he told RTL radio.
The EU said it had been in contact with Swiss authorities about providing medical assistance. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said some of the injured were being cared for in French hospitals. Others were hospitalised in Germany.
Pope Leo sent a message to the bishop of Sion to express his “compassion and solicitude” and pray that “the Lord will welcome the deceased into His abode of peace and light, and sustain the courage of those who suffer in their hearts or in their bodies”.
Several sources told Agence France-Presse that the bar’s owners were a couple of French nationals originally from Corsica. According to a relative, the couple are safe but have been unreachable since the tragedy.
Residents of Crans-Montana, many of whom knew victims, have been stunned by the disaster. Hundreds of people stood in silence near the scene as they came to pay their respects to the dead and injured on Thursday night.
On Friday the mound of floral tributes outside Le Constellation bar continued to grow. “Rest in peace among the stars,” one of the messages read.
“I woke up to a loud bang at about 1.30am but then it went silent,” said François, who did not want to give his surname. “I fell back to sleep and then saw the news in the morning. It seems that so many young people have lost their lives. We’ve never experienced anything like this.”
“They were people like us,” said Piermarco Pani, an 18-year-old who, like many others in the town, knew the bar well. Dozens of people left flowers or lit candles on a makeshift altar at the top of the road leading to the bar, which police had cordoned off.
Elisa Sousa (17) said she was meant to have been at Le Constellation on Thursday night but had spent the evening at a family gathering instead. “I’ll need to thank my mother a hundred times for not letting me go,” she said at the vigil. – Guardian
