A local Swiss prosecutor has said the fire inside Le Constellation nightclub in the ski resort of Crans-Montana appears to have started from “sparklers put on bottles of champagne that was moved too close to the ceiling”.
About 40 people were killed in the blaze that engulfed the bar, which was packed with mainly young revellers celebrating the new year, and about 119 others injured, many of them seriously, authorities said on Friday afternoon.
The nationalities of those injured have also been released. They include 71 Swiss, 14 French, 11 Italians, as well as one individual each from Bosnia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland and Portugal.
The nationalities of 14 of the injured have not yet been confirmed.
On the likely cause of the fire, Valais attorney general Beatrice Pilloud said “everything leads us to believe that the fire was started from sparkling candles or sparklers that were put on bottles of champagne that were moved too close to the ceiling.”
“From that a blaze began very quickly … There are videos that have been analysed; there are several people who have been interviewed and reports have been made.”
Eyewitness video on social media appears to show the moment a fire broke out inside Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.
The investigation’s next steps will focus on materials used in the bar, the operating permits, safety measures such as fire extinguishers and emergency exits and the number of people in attendance, she said.
Photographs circulating online appear to show the moment the ceiling caught fire with lit sparklers attached to bottles.
While the names of the dead and injured have yet to be officially released, Emanuele Galeppini, a 16-year-old Italian international golfer who lived in Dubai, was the first of several possible victims from Italy to be identified locally.
Investigators have said it could take days to identify all the victims who died in the fire that tore through a crowded bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, as a local official said many of the injured were in a life-threatening condition.
“The Italian Golf Federation mourns the passing of Emanuele Galeppini, a young athlete who carried with him passion and genuine values,” the federation said in a statement.
Emanuele Galeppini with Rory McIlroy. Photograph: Instagram
Mr Galeppini had been in Crans-Montana with his family. Italian media reported that he had gone to the Constellation bar with two friends, who managed to escape the fire and were taken to nearby hospitals.
The head of the Valais regional government, Mathias Reynard, said experts were using dental and DNA samples in the “terrible and sensitive” task of identifying the badly burned bodies. “Nothing can be told to the families unless we are 100 per cent sure,” he said.
Béatrice Pilloud, the Valais public prosecutor, said “significant resources” had been put in place to “identify the victims and return the bodies to families as fast as possible”. The canton’s police chief, Frédéric Gisler, said the process could take several days.
Stéphane Ganzer, a regional health and safety official, told RTL radio that several of the injured had not yet been identified, either because they were not carrying ID or because it had been lost in the fire, adding that many were also a critical condition.
“I think a large number of the injured, maybe between 80 and 100, are in a life-threatening condition,” Mr Ganzer said on Friday. “When 15 per cent or more of an adult’s body has third-degree burns, there is a risk of death in the days and hours that follow.”
Security guards in front of the sealed-off bar. Photograph: Antonio Calanni/AP
The victims are believed to be of many nationalities. France’s foreign ministry has said nine French nationals were among the injured and eight were still missing. Italy has said six of its nationals are still missing and 13 were being treated in hospital. Australia has said one of its nationals was injured in the blaze.
The Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, would visit Crans-Montana on Friday, the country’s ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, said. Cornado told Italian media that 47 people had been killed in the blaze, but Ganzer said on Friday he was “surprised” by that figure. “This is not the same number that we have,” he told RTL radio.
The EU said it had been in contact with Swiss authorities about providing medical assistance. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said some of the injured were being cared for in French hospitals. Others were hospitalised in Germany.
Switzerland fire video still
Several witness accounts broadcast by the Swiss, French and Italian media pointed to sparklers or flares placed in Champagne bottles and held high by restaurant staff as part of a regular “show” for patrons, who made special orders to their tables.
There were “waitresses with Champagne bottles and little sparklers. They got too close to the ceiling, and suddenly it all caught fire”, one witness, Axel. told the Italian media outlet Local Team.
Pilloud said investigators would be examining whether the bar met safety standards. Ganzer said images circulating on social media “seem fairly clear”, adding that there were similar flares and sparklers “in every disco in France, Switzerland and Europe”. He said the investigation would determine whether the material of the basement’s ceiling, which some images suggest was covered in a form of cladding, was safe.
Several sources told Agence France-Presse that the bar’s owners were a couple of French nationals originally from Corsica. According to a relative, the couple are safe but have been unreachable since the tragedy.
People lay flowers and light candles for the victims of the fire in Switzerland. Photograph: Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP
Residents of Crans-Montana, many of whom knew victims, have been stunned by the disaster. Hundreds of people stood in silence near the scene as they came to pay their respects to the dead and injured on Thursday night.
On Friday the mound of floral tributes outside Le Constellation bar continued to grow. “Rest in peace among the stars,” one of the messages read.
“I woke up to a loud bang at about 1.30am but then it went silent,” said François, who did not want to give his surname. “I fell back to sleep and then saw the news in the morning. It seems that so many young people have lost their lives. We’ve never experienced anything like this.”
Arlino Marchese and his friend Sacha Dimic, from the nearby town of Sierre, were in Crans-Montana to ski on Friday. “We used to go to Le Constellation a lot when we were younger,” said Dimic. “It was a good bar, with a good atmosphere and really popular. All those lives gone, it’s terrible.”
“They were people like us,” said Piermarco Pani, an 18-year-old who, like many others in the town, knew the bar well. Dozens of people left flowers or lit candles on a makeshift altar at the top of the road leading to the bar, which police had cordoned off.
A hearse arrives at the funeral home in Sion. Photograph: Maxime Schmid/AFP via Getty
Elisa Sousa (17) said she was meant to have been at Le Constellation on Thursday night but had spent the evening at a family gathering instead. “I’ll need to thank my mother a hundred times for not letting me go,” she said at the vigil.
The Swiss president, Guy Parmelin, who visited the mountain resort on Thursday, said the country would hold five days of mourning to mark what he described as one of the most traumatic events in its history. – Guardian