Switzerland bar fire : According to eyewitnesses, a horrific fire ripped through a packed bar and nightclub in Switzerland on New Year’s Eve, causing immense panic and pandemonium. People slumped as panicked throngs ran for their lives. By Friday morning, at least 47 people had died and 115 had been injured, as the country entered a five-day period of mourning.
The fire began shortly after midnight at Le Constellation, a subterranean venue in the Alpine town of Crans Montana that was packed with hundreds of primarily young drinkers. Authorities said several of the patients had significant burns, making identification difficult. Switzerland’s president called the incident extraordinary, and surrounding countries offered medical assistance.
Gian Lorenzo Cornado, Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland, told Sky TG24 that local officials informed him that the incident could have been started by someone putting off a firecracker inside the bar.
Witnesses remember scenes of horror.
Survivors recounted scenes of uncertainty as fires advanced quickly, engulfing the club with dense smoke and blocking exit routes. Two women informed French television station BFMTV that they were inside when a male bartender carried a female coworker onto his shoulders while she clutched a bottle topped with a lit candle. According to their story, the flame ignited the hardwood ceiling and spread within seconds.
“The fire spread across the ceiling very quickly,” one of the women, Emma, stated. She and her friend Albane said panic broke out almost immediately as portions of the ceiling crumbled and people rushed to a narrow staircase leading out of the basement.
‘Everybody was shouting.’
Witnesses described a devastating mass surge as individuals attempted to escape through a tiny exit.
“It was absolute panic, everyone was screaming,” Emma and Albane claimed, recounting how movement became uncontrollable as smoke thickened.
Another witness reported that individuals smashed windows to flee as flames overtook the premises. He recounted witnessing severely injured people outdoors and parents arriving in cars, urgently looking for their children.
Watching from across the street, the witness described seeing around 20 individuals struggle through smoke and fire, comparing the scene to a horror film.
Reuters-verified video footage showed flames rushing across the skyscraper as throngs fled.
“There were people screaming, and then people lying on the ground, probably dead,” said 21-year-old Samuel Rapp, who came shortly after the fire. “They had jackets over their faces.”
According to Frederic Gisler, director of police in the Valais canton, approximately 40 people were killed and 115 were injured, the majority of them critically. According to Italian authorities, six Italians are missing and thirteen have been hospitalized.
Switzerland bar fire : Survivors described total mayhem.
Axel Clavier, a 16-year-old Paris resident who survived the fire, told the Associated Press that he witnessed “total chaos” inside the bar. One of his pals died, and two or three more are missing.
Clavier stated that he observed servers carrying champagne bottles and sparklers but did not witness how the fire started. As smoke filled the room, he battled to breathe, hiding behind a table before running upstairs and smashing a Plexiglas glass to escape.
“I’m still in shock,” he admitted. “I lost my jacket, shoes, phone, and bank card, but I’m still alive.” “It is just stuff.”
According to witnesses, the injured were treated at temporary triage centers in surrounding facilities such as a pub and a UBS bank office before being taken to hospitals in Lausanne, Zurich, and other towns via ambulances and helicopters. “And then it was just ambulances going back and forth,” said Dominic Dubois, who witnessed the bodies being hauled away.
The arduous job of identifying victims
Investigators began the tedious and terrible task of identifying dozens of severely burnt bodies. They said it could take several days because several of the patients, especially young revellers, had sustained significant burn injuries.
As rescue teams searched through the wreckage, concerned parents of missing children aired desperate pleas for information, while foreign embassies attempted to determine whether their citizens were among the casualties.
“The first goal is to assign names to all of the bodies. This task must be completed because the material is so horrific and delicate that nothing can be disclosed to families unless we are absolutely certain,” Crans Montana Mayor Nicolas Feraud said at a press conference, adding that the process would be slow and painstaking.
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