Swiss bar fire : Sparklers held under a foam-clad ceiling likely started a devastating fire that killed 40 New Year’s revelers in a Swiss ski pub, officials said Friday, although the bar owner asserted that all safety precautions were taken.
Investigators looking into the cause of the disaster, which occurred in the early hours of Thursday in the Swiss Alps resort town of Crans-Montana, have zeroed in on the sparklers after reviewing cell phone footage and interviewing with survivors.
Swiss bar fire photographs, some of which have been shared online
The photographs, some of which have been shared online, were captured by partygoers at Le Constellation bar and show sparklers put in the tops of champagne bottles held close to the basement bar’s low ceiling, which was coated in soundproofing foam material.
Videos showed the cloth catching fire, but the guests, many of whom were in their late teens and twenties, continued to dance, unconscious of the danger they were in.
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“Everything suggests that the fire started from sparklers or Bengal candles,” Beatrice Pilloud, the Wallis region’s chief prosecutor, said during a press briefing.
When the partygoers understood they were in danger, chaos ensued, with images showing people scrambling and shouting.
a bar at a swiss ski resort catches fire.
rather than run or respond, the patrons stand around dancing under it and filming it for instagram.
as a result, 40 people who could have reached safety died because they seem, quite literally, to have forgotten that danger is real.
— el gato malo (@boriquagato) January 2, 2026
Witnesses reported a terrifying sight in which some attempted to escape by breaking windows while others, who had been severely burned, flowed into the streets.
The majority of the 119 survivors were in serious condition, putting a strain on Swiss hospitals to the point where many were sent to neighboring European countries for specialized burns care.
Jacques Moretti, the French proprietor who has owned the bar with his wife Jessica since 2015, insisted to Swiss daily the Tribune de Geneve that safety precautions had been taken.
“Everything was done according to the regulations,” he told me.
However, Pilloud stated that the probe would focus on the application of those criteria.
The Morettis, who fled the fire unscathed, have been questioned as “witnesses,” but no liability has been determined at this time, she added.
It’s unclear how many individuals were at the tavern when it caught fire. According to the Crans-Montana website, the venue can seat 300 people, with an additional 40 on the terrace.
Authorities cautioned that identifying everyone who died could take days, leaving relatives and friends with an agonising wait.
Given Crans-Montana’s renowned reputation as a ski destination, foreigners were expected to be among the deceased.
Laetitia Brodard was among those bracing for the worst, claiming that the last text she received from her 16-year-old son, Arthur, was “Mom, Happy New Year, I love you”.
“It’s been forty hours. It’s been forty hours since our children disappeared. So we should know by now,” she told reporters Friday beside a makeshift monument near the burned-out shell of Le Constellation.
The Swiss authorities have also been seeking to identify the severely burned survivors.
Wallis canton regional police commander Frederic Gisler told reporters that 113 of the 119 people who managed to escape had been identified, and officers were working “relentlessly” to finish the job.
The injured included 71 Swiss, 14 French, 11 Italians, four Serbs, and others from Bosnia, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, and Luxembourg.
Gisler stated that in 14 cases, the nationality was still uncertain.
Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and Romania are among the countries assisting in the transfer of charred survivors, with EU crisis management commissioner Hadja Lahbib stating that 24 have already been moved.
Mathias Reynard, chief of Wallis canton, stated that approximately 50 people would be moved for treatment outside of Switzerland.
Eric Bonvin, general director of hospitals in the Wallis canton, told AFP that the patients brought in had not only burns but also fractures and suffocation symptoms, which were most likely caused by the hurried rush for the exit.
In other cases, the burns were not only exterior, but also respiratory—inhalation burns that are “extremely complex and difficult” to treat, he noted.
The majority of those cases were transferred to other hospitals with specialized units, he said.
As authorities began removing victims from the burned-out pub on Friday, Crans-Montana residents were left stunned.
“The atmosphere is heavy,” Dejan Bajic, a 56-year-old visitor from Geneva who has been visiting the resort since 1974, said AFP.
“It’s like a small village; everyone knows someone who knows someone who’s been affected,” he told me.
Locals and tourists who witnessed the aftermath of the catastrophe told AFP what they saw in the minutes and hours after the fire started.
Edmond Cocquyt, a Belgian visitor, reported seeing bodies “covered with a white sheet” and “young people, totally burned, who were still alive… screaming in pain”.
“We thought it was just a small fire — but when we got there, it was war,” Mathys, from the nearby commune of Chermignon-d’en-Bas, said, declining to give his surname.
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