Hundreds gathered in silence in the freezing night in Crans-Montana on the evening of Thursday, January 1, laying flowers and lighting candles to remember those killed and injured in a horrific blaze as they celebrated the New Year.
Around 40 people died and more than 100 were injured in the blaze that ripped through the crowded Le Constellation bar around 1:30 am.
The atmosphere among those who came to mourn the tragedy was deathly quiet. Many of those who stood, motionless, overlooking the scene of the tragedy, knew people who remain unaccounted for, or who were badly injured. People spoke in whispers, if at all. The only sound came from a generator humming by the temporary white tents erected outside the bar.
Mourners laid tributes on a table temporarily put up at the entrance of the road leading down to the bar, which was blocked from view by white screens. Two police officers stood guard at the cordon. A steady stream of people brought candles and flowers; sometimes a single rose, sometimes a large bunch. As the table filled, people began to place individual candles on the frozen ground.
Several groups of young men looked utterly inconsolable. They held one and other and looked in their eyes, grasping for words. Some of those gathered could barely voice their emotions.
Deadly fire
The fire ripped through the crowded bar in the luxury ski resort town of Crans-Montana as young revelers rang in the new year.
Horrified bystanders described “panic” as people tried to break through the windows of the bar to escape, and others, covered in burns, poured into the street. Police, firefighters and rescuers rushed to the popular resort, which is set to host the Ski World Cup from January 30, after the fire broke out in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
Guy Parmelin, who took over the Swiss presidency on Thursday, told reporters the fire was “one of the worst tragedies that our country has experienced.”
Alexis Laguerre, an 18-year-old, had been walking with a group of friends past the Le Constellation bar, a popular spot with young people and tourists, when they noticed smoke and flames emerging from the venue and called the police. “I am in shock,” Laguerre told Swiss public broadcaster RTS. “People were running through the flames. People were using chairs to try to break the windows.”
Two young French women, Emma and Albane, told French broadcaster BFMTV that they had been able to escape the “panic” in the bar shortly after the fire broke out. They said “birthday candles” placed on champagne bottles had got too close to the ceiling.
“Seconds later, the entire ceiling was burning,” one of them told the broadcaster, estimating that there were around 200 people in the venue at the time, mainly aged between 15 and 20.
Rush to identify victims
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Italian broadcaster Rete4 that around 15 Italians had been injured in the fire, and a similar number remained missing. At least two French citizens were among the injured, according to initial reports from the French foreign ministry.
Le Constellation has a capacity of 300 people, plus another 40 people on its terrace, according to the Crans-Montana website. The bar is owned by a French couple, according to a local business registry and friends of the owners.
Early reports had suggested a large explosion might have caused the fire. But Stephane Ganzer, head of Wallis’s security department, said that “the initial investigation shows the explosion was in fact a consequence of the fire.” “There is absolutely no question of a terrorist attack,” stressed Pilloud, the prosecutor.