Did fireworks on champagne bottles trigger deadly blaze in Swiss ski resort bar?

The freezing cold couldn’t deter people from coming out in Crans-Montana in Switzerland to lay flowers and light candles to mourn the loss of lives after a deadly fire ripped through a bar on New Year’s eve, killing 47 people and injuring many more. Some stood motionless, while others embraced one another with tears in their eyes as they tried to cope with the tragedy that unfolded at the crowded Le Constellation bar.

The Alpine nation has also announced five days of mourning following the blaze to honour the victims. Switzerland’s President Guy Parmelin described the incident as one of the most traumatic events in the country’s history. “It was a drama of an unknown scale,” he said, paying tribute to the many “young lives that were lost and interrupted”. Switzerland owed it to those young people, who had their “projects, hopes and dreams” cut short, to ensure such a tragedy never happened again, added the president.

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Swiss authorities also have the arduous task of identifying the burned bodies with Crans-Montana’s mayor Nicolas Feraud saying, “The first objective is to assign names to all the bodies.” However, this this, he said, could take days.

But what do we know about the deadly blaze? How did it begin? How bad was it? Here’s what we know and don’t know so far.

What exactly happened at the Crans-Montana bar?

Around 1.30 am, local time, as people were ringing in the new year, a fire broke out at a crowded Le Constellation bar in Switzerland’s Crans-Montana town. For those unaware, Crans-Montana is popularly known to be an international ski and golf venue, and is located just 40 kilometres away from Matterhorn, one of the most famous Alpine peaks, and approximately two hours from the Swiss capital of Bern.

According to one eyewitness, “the party was in full swing… music and champagne was flowing freely” when the fire broke out. One tourist from New York filmed bright orange flames leaping from the bar, telling news agency AFP that he saw people running and screaming in the dark.

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Another was quoted as telling French broadcaster BFMTV that people were breaking windows to escape the blaze, and panicked parents rushed to the scene in cars to see whether their children were trapped inside. He added that he saw about 20 people scrambling to get out of the smoke and flames, likening what happened to a horror movie.

Axel Clavier, a 16-year-old from Paris, felt as if he was suffocating. He used a table to push a plexiglass pane out of its casing, allowing him to flee the “total chaos”, he told Associated Press.

As head of the regional government, Mathias Reynard, said, “This evening should have been a moment of celebration and coming together, but it turned into a nightmare.”

But what caused the blaze at the bar in Crans-Montana?

Now, here’s the part that remains unknown so far. Authorities are still investigating the matter, with experts adding that they haven’t yet been able to go inside the building. However, officials said there was no sign of terrorism or arson. “At no moment is there a question of any kind of attack,” said Beatrice Pilloud, the public prosecutor of the Valais canton.

Officials have said that the blaze that raged through the crowded bar is an “embrasement généralisé”, a firefighting term describing how a fire can trigger the release of combustible gases that can then ignite violently and cause what English-speaking firefighters would call a flashover or a backdraft.

In the meantime, many theories have emerged to explain how the fire broke out inside the deadly bar, ravaging everything in its path.

One such theory was given voice by Gian Lorenzo Cornado, Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland. He told Italy’s Sky TG24 that the blaze may have been started by someone letting off a firecracker inside the bar.

Another theory is that the blaze originated from one of the “birthday candles” placed on champagne bottles. This has come about after two French women, who claimed to have escaped the blaze, recounted seeing the blaze begin after the lit champagne bottles were brought out. “One of them was brought too close to the ceiling, which caught fire. In a few dozen seconds, the whole ceiling was on fire. Everything was made of wood,” one of the women has been quoted as saying.

In fact, promotional videos showed waitresses weaving through the crowd with flaming champagne bottles held aloft and nearly brushing against the ceiling — a party gimmick witnesses say turned deadly around 1:30 a.m. local time.

There was also a third possible cause. Swiss media said that the possibility of pyrotechnics during a concert may have been the reason for the fire. However, officials said early findings suggest an explosion was a consequence of the fire, not the cause.

Questions have also been raised about the safety standards at the bar. It is unknown as to how many people were inside the bar at the time of the blaze —Le Constellation has a capacity of 300 people, plus another 40 people on its terrace.

Several witnesses said the space where the fire began was connected with the ground floor by only a staircase, which some described as “narrow”. However, chief prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud said that it was too early to comment, adding, “what exactly constitutes a narrow staircase”. Pilloud also said it was “too early” to comment on whether emergency exits met the required standards, or whether the necessary procedures had been followed before organising the New Year’s event.

Who are the victims of the Swiss bar fire?

A whopping 47 people have been killed in the fire, with another 115 injured — many of them severely burnt. The injured have been taken to hospitals across Switzerland. Also, a burns unit in Italy’s Milan has been made available to the victims.

According to officials, many of the victims were in their teens and 20s. At present, authorities are trying to identify the victims and inform their families. But, this will take time.

As of now, 16 Italians have been reported missing, while about a dozen more Italian nationals are being treated in hospital after the blaze, the Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said. Meanwhile, France said that eight of its citizens were missing and it could not rule out that French nationals were among the dead.

A French professional football player associated with the French club FC Metz, Tahirys Dos Santos, has been identified as one of the victims of the blaze at the bar in Crans-Montana. The 19-year-old, who suffered severe burns, was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Germany for treatment. According to reports, Dos Santos was vacationing in the Swiss Alps with friends when the fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar in the upscale resort of Crans-Montana.

How has the world reacted to the blaze in Switzerland?

Switzerland has announced five days of mourning after the tragedy with President Parmelin saying, “What was meant to be a moment of joy has turned the first day of the year in Crans-Montana into a day of mourning affecting the entire country and beyond.” Many of the dead were young people with “projects, hopes and dreams”, he said.

Britain’s King Charles also paid tribute to the young victims of the Crans- Montana bar tragedy. “It is utterly heartbreaking that a night of celebration for young people and families instead turned to such nightmarish tragedy,” the monarch said in his message to the president of Switzerland.

French President Emmanuel Macron also spoke with his Swiss counterpart to express France’s solidarity after a fire killed dozens at a Swiss ski resort. “The toll is devastating. Our thoughts are with the families,” Macron wrote on X.

Other countries such as Israel, Egypt have also paid tribute to those who lost their lives in the blaze, and also offering their assistance.

With inputs from agencies