Crans-Montana fire: Swiss face arduous task of identifying victims of deadly bar inferno

CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland – Investigators on Jan 2 set about the painful task of identifying the burnt bodies of victims of a

blaze that engulfed a crowded bar

and killed around 40 people at a New Year’s Eve party in the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.

Emanuele Galeppini, a 16-year-old Italian international golfer who lived in Dubai, was named on Jan 2 as the first of several possible victims from Italy to be identified.

So severe were the burns suffered by the mostly young crowd of revellers in the Le Constellation bar that Swiss officials said it could take days before they name all the victims of the fire that also injured well over 100 people, many of them seriously.

Parents of missing young people anxiously issued pleas for news of their loved ones as foreign embassies scrambled to work out if their nationals were among those who were caught up in one of the worst tragedies to befall modern Switzerland.

Desperate search

“I have been searching for my son for 30 hours. The wait is unbearable,” Laetitia, the mother of missing 16-year-old Arthur, told BFM TV, saying she was desperate to know if he was alive or dead, and where.

“If he’s in the hospital, I don’t know which hospital he’s in. If he’s in the morgue, I don’t know which morgue he’s in.

“If my son is alive, he’s alone in the hospital, and I can’t be by his side.”

The authorities have warned that naming the victims or establishing a definitive death toll would take time because many of the bodies were badly burnt.

“All this work needs to be done because the information is so terrible and sensitive that nothing can be told to the families unless we are 100 per cent sure,” said Mr Mathias Reynard, head of government of the canton of Valais.

Experts were using dental and DNA samples to identify the victims, he said.

Cause under investigation

What caused the blaze was unclear. The Swiss authorities said it appeared to be an accident rather than an attack.

Some accounts from survivors and footage broadcast on social media suggested that the ceiling of the bar’s basement may have caught fire when sparkling candles got too close.

Visitors and residents of Crans-Montana, which has the distinction of being not only a popular draw for skiers, but also golfers, were stunned by the inferno. Many knew victims and some said they were lucky not to have been there themselves.

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. Some cried, and others quietly hugged one another.

“It could have been us,” Emma, an 18-year-old from Geneva, said outside the cordoned-off bar.

“There was an enormous queue so we decided not to go in (to that bar on New Year’s Eve).

“We were so lucky we didn’t. Even if we are alive and are fine, we are still in shock. It’s a trauma even for us. I see those missing and it’s all people our age.”

Behind the cordon, the bodies of some victims still lay in the bar, the police said, as they pledged to work round the clock to identify everyone who succumbed to the blaze.

Elisa Sousa, 17, said she was meant to be there but ended up spending the evening at a family gathering instead.

“And honestly, I’ll need to thank my mother a hundred times for not letting me go,” she said at the vigil for the victims. “Because God knows where I’d be now.”

Italian, French among the missing

Italy and France are among the countries that have said some of their nationals are missing.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani was set to visit Crans-Montana on Jan 2, according to Italian Ambassador to Switzerland Gian Lorenzo Cornado.

Australia has also said one of its nationals was injured in the incident.

Swiss officials have said around 40 people were killed, but Italy has put the death toll at 47, based on information from the Swiss authorities.

All except five of the 112 people injured had been identified, Mr Cornado said. Six Italians are still missing and 13 hospitalised, he added.

Three Italians were repatriated on Jan 1 and three more would follow on Jan 2, he said. REUTERS