Inside the funicular that carries passengers on the vertiginous climb from the town of Sierre up to the plateau where Crans-Montana sits, some carry skis and some carry roses.
At the top, 1,500 metres above sea level, the skiers depart to take on some of the most prized slopes in the Alps. The mourners walk slowly down to the centre of this small town to lay their tributes outside Le Constellation bar, where 40 people were killed and 119 injured in a horrific fire on Thursday when the new year was barely an hour old.
In the centre of the town’s lake, frozen solid against the backdrop of the towering Alps, a Swiss flag flutters at half mast as they do across a country stunned by one of the worst tragedies in its recent history.
On Friday the public prosecutor for the Valais region, Béatrice Pilloud, said the fire was probably caused by sparklers attached to champagne bottles igniting the ceiling of the basement bar. Videos circulated last week showing bartenders wearing crash helmets and riding on people’s shoulders, brandishing the bottles as the ceiling insulation began to burn.
What followed was an almost instant conflagration, probably a “flashover” fire, in which gases rise to the top of an enclosed space, and radiate intense heat until everything combustible sets alight as temperatures soar higher than 500C.
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Police and justice minister Beat Jans visited the site of the inferno yesterday afternoon and described the tragedy as “a disastrous human catastrophe”.
Pilloud said a criminal investigation had been opened into the bar’s French owners Jacques and Jessica Moretti, for manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence. In a brief interview with the Tribune de Genève, Jacques said that “everything was done according to the rules” in the bar. But Pilloud said the ongoing investigation would focus on whether safety standards were met at Le Constellation.
When news first broke of the fire, its location made it quickly clear that this would be a catastrophe borne disproportionately by the young. With no admission charge and inexpensive drinks, the bar was a magnet for local and visiting young people in this pricy resort town. Unlike many countries, in Switzerland it is legal to drink wine and beer in bars from the age of 16, and some victims are believed to be as young as 15.
Swiss police have opened a criminal investigation into the owners of Le Constellation for manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence
Swiss authorities are working to identify the victims, both living and dead. On Saturday, local police said they had identified eight of the dead and returned the bodies to their families. All eight – four female and four male – were Swiss nationals aged between 16-24. Among the injured were 71 Swiss nationals, 14 French and 11 Italians as well as visitors from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Poland, Luxembourg and Portugal. All but six have now been identified, leaving slim hope for those still searching that their loved ones will be found alive.
Laëtitia Brodard-Sitre has not heard from her 16-year-old son, Arthur, since he went to celebrate New Year’s Eve with friends at the bar. She and Arthur’s father have searched for the boy at the crisis centres set up for families, in intensive care units in Lausanne and Bern and on social media, combing through Instagram stories for a trace of their son. “Police and investigators are doing a very good job but they are looking for 120 people,” she told French TV channel LCI on Friday. “I am only looking for one. Wherever he is, whether he is in the morgue, or in intensive care in a hospital either abroad or here in Switzerland, his mother needs to be at his side.”
Victims have been flown to cities around Switzerland, as well as France and Italy for treatment.
Night and day in Crans-Montana people come to the site of the tragedy, leaving flowers, lighting candles and attaching notes of condolence to a small Christmas tree. Some kneel to pray on the icy ground, others linger for hours in the bitter cold, wrapping their arms round each other as they stand vigil. Behind them, the town’s festive lights still strobe. Le Constellation has been cordoned off by police as the investigation continues.
‘Police are doing a good job but they are looking for 120 people. I am only looking for one’
Laëtitia Brodard-Sitre, mother
Thomas, 18, travelled from Geneva with a friend to pay his respects – and because someone he knows is still missing. “It’s horrible to be here and it’s horrible to see all of this, especially when we’ve got people that we know that are affected by it,” he said.
Thomas, who did not give his surname, works in an underground nightclub in Geneva with a similar layout to Le Constellation’s, one that also puts on “bottle shows” for patrons who spend big. “It really hits close to home,” he said.
He says the club where he works, which he did not want to name because he is not authorised to speak officially, would no longer use sparklers after the tragedy at Crans-Montana. “It’s ridiculous that these things have been allowed to be used for the past number of years, and it’s crazy that this has only happened now.” Thomas has skied with his family at Crans-Montana for most of his life. “Everyone here knows each other. Everyone has this family relationship with everyone, especially the people that work here.”
His thoughts are with his colleagues in hospitality.
“For the rest of the season, there will be this weight over everybody, especially the people that are working in the service industry.”
The fire happened on the busiest night of the busiest season of the year in Crans-Montana. While the atmosphere in town is one of devastation, up on the mountain, the ski season continues. Joël Graf wasn’t sure whether he and his young family should still come on their planned ski trip the day after the blaze. He called ahead to the youth hostel where they are staying to ask if it was still appropriate to come. They told him yes.
The local tourist board has said that most facilities in the town are open in the aftermath of the tragedy, and “we kindly invite our visitors to enjoy these services calmly and with respect”.
Daniele and Valeria Lucci came from nearby Sierre to place flowers at the site. The couple have two children aged 15 and 16 whose friends were injured in the fire.
They said life had to continue in the region, despite the “bizarre atmosphere”. “There are many people who came here on holiday after a year of work – there’s nothing we can say about that,” Daniele said.
“We can’t do anything about what happened. But there are families, police officers, ambulance crews and firefighters who are suffering. We really need to think about them.”
A Christian family, the Luccis have also come to pray for those affected, and said they will keep coming back.
“We were here yesterday, we are here today and we’ll be here tomorrow.”
Photographs by Maxime Schmid / AFP via Getty Images