CRANS-MONTANA (Switzerland): Sparklers held under a foam-clad ceiling likely ignited a deadly blaze that killed 40 New Year’s revellers in a Swiss ski bar, authorities said on Friday, but the bar owner insisted that all safety standards were followed.
Investigators working to get to the cause of the tragedy, which happened in the early hours of Thursday in the Swiss Alps resort town of Crans-Montana, have homed in on the sparklers after viewing mobile phone footage and speaking to survivors.
The images, some posted online, were recorded by partygoers in Le Constellation bar and show sparklers stuck in the top of champagne bottles held close to the basement bar’s low ceiling, which was covered with soundproofing foam material.
Videos showed the material catching fire but the patrons — many of them in their late teens and 20s — kept dancing, unaware of the death trap they were in.
“Everything suggests that the fire started from sparklers or Bengal candles” waved high near the ceiling, the chief prosecutor of the Wallis region, Beatrice Pilloud, told a press conference.
When the party-goers realised the danger they were in, chaos broke out, with videos showing them scrambling and screaming.
Witnesses described a scene of terror, as people tried to break windows to escape while others, badly burned, poured into the street.
Most of the 119 survivors were in a critical condition, overloading Swiss hospitals so much that dozens were being taken to neighbouring European countries for specialised burns treatment.
Jacques Moretti, the French owner who had run the bar since 2015 with his wife Jessica, insisted to Swiss daily the Tribune de Geneve that safety norms had been followed.
But Pilloud said the application of those standards was among the focuses of the investigation.
The Morettis — who escaped the fire unharmed — have been questioned as “witnesses”, with no liability established at this stage, she said.
The exact number of people who were at the bar when it went up in flames remains unclear.
The CransMontana website said the venue had a capacity of 300 people plus 40 on its terrace.
Authorities warned it could take days to identify everyone who perished, leaving an agonising wait for family and friends.
Given Crans-Montana’s international popularity as a ski destination, foreigners were expected to be among the dead.
Among those bracing for the worst was Laetitia Brodard, who said that the last text she received from her 16-year-old son, Arthur, was “Mom, Happy New Year, I love you”.
“It’s been 40 hours. Forty hours since our children have disappeared.
So we should know by now,” she told journalists Friday near a makeshift ČăČĎđćÿċĒăēĔďčăÿđēĆăĀĔđčēܳĎĔē shell of Le Constellation.
Swiss authorities have also been working to identify the badly burned survivors.
Wallis canton regional police commander Frederic Gisler told reporters that 113 of the 119 who managed to get out had been identified and officials were working “relentlessly” to complete the task.
Of the injured, 71 were Swiss, 14 were French, 11 were Italian, and there were four Serbs, as well as individual Bosnian, Belgian, Polish, Portuguese and Luxembourg nationals.
In 14 cases the nationality was still unknown, Gisler said. – AFP
