{"id":487883,"date":"2026-01-02T20:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T20:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/487883\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T20:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T20:42:14","slug":"survivors-recount-ski-resort-blaze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/487883\/","title":{"rendered":"Survivors recount ski resort blaze"},"content":{"rendered":"

CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland \u2014 Ringing in the new year with a night of drinking and dancing high in the Swiss Alps, Ebenezer Mehari, 17, decided to take a breather outside the packed Constellation Bar.<\/p>\n

As he turned to go back inside, he told NBC News at the scene Friday, \u201chell\u201d erupted as a deadly fire broke out. \u201cI heard a big boom, and everybody was screaming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mehari said a thick smoke enveloped the venue and the crowd, blinding him. He fell to the ground as people rushed to escape the bar, he said, but a man pulled him away to safety.<\/p>\n

His friends were not so lucky, he says. \u201cI have four friends who died,\u201d he said, still struggling to process the loss. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s not real.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EbenezerEbenezer Mehari.Daniele Hamamdjian \/ NBC News<\/p>\n

Mehari, who has lived in the area for 15 years, said he saw someone he knew from school disfigured and burning, and others whose hair and clothes had burned off.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody was dying in front of me and I couldn\u2019t do anything,\u201d he said. \u201cHer face was so burned it was red.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bar was popular with local teenagers, he said. The legal drinking age is 16 in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

Mehari was among survivors taken to a hospital ward in Sion, where he was offered mental health assistance. \u201cI tried to sleep, but I can\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mehari\u2019s was among the harrowing witness accounts emerging Friday as investigators searched for answers. At least 40 people are dead and 119 injured, officials said, many of them with serious burns that a senior doctor treating them said will require \u201cmonths of rehabilitation\u201d and even have \u201clifelong consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Axel Clavier, 16, from Paris, told The Associated Press that he lost his jacket, shoes and phone while fleeing, though he was grateful to have made it out. \u201cI am still alive and it\u2019s just stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m still in shock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Image:A video obtained from X shows the fire in Crans-Montana early Thursday.@Tyroneking36852 \/ X via AFP-Getty Images<\/p>\n

Samuel Rapp said he was at a restaurant next door when the fire broke out.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people were screaming and it was horrible,\u201d Rapp told NBC News\u2019 British broadcasting partner Sky News. \u201cPeople were walking on everybody,\u201d he said, adding that he \u201csaw a lot of people on the floor, and I think these people were dead because someone put jackets on their faces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laetitia Place, 17, said she was caught up in the chaos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s the small door where everyone was pushing, and so we all fell, we were piled on top of each other, some people were burning, and some were dead next to us,\u201d she told Reuters. \u201cI was so scared \u2014 scared for myself, scared for my friends, scared for everyone inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cWe all saw really horrible things that no one should ever have to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AftermathA person pays tribute next to candles placed for the victims outside the Constellation Bar.Stephanie Lecocq \/ Reuters<\/p>\n

Eric Bonvin, the general director of the regional hospital in Sion that took in several dozen injured people, said those with severe burns face months of treatment.<\/p>\n

The injured were teenagers and young adults, roughly 20 years old on average, he told The Associated Press inside the hospital.<\/p>\n

Injured survivors suffered burns to varying degrees, not just to their skin but also to their airways.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were inhalations of both smoke and also of heat that for some probably led to internal burns. That\u2019s a really catastrophic situation, as you can imagine,\u201d Bonvin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard to live through for everyone. Also probably because everyone was asking themselves, \u2018Was my child, my cousin, someone from the region at this party?\u2019 This place was very well known as somewhere to celebrate the new year,\u201d Bonvin said. \u201cAlso, seeing young people arrive \u2014 that\u2019s always traumatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The road to recovery for the gravely injured will likely be long and arduous, he cautioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those with serious burns, intensive care treatment lasts several months,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s not without hope,\u201d he added. \u201cThey are young, and that means they still have a lot of vitality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniele Hamamdjian reported from Crans-Montana, Switzerland. Elmira Aliieva and Alexander Smith reported from London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland \u2014 Ringing in the new year with a night of drinking and dancing high in the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":487884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[171,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-487883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115827451248495392","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}