Switzerland will hold five days of mourning after a fire at a ski resort nightclub killed at least 40 people. The Swiss president, Guy Parmelin, called the blaze one of the most traumatic events in the country’s history and described it as a “drama of an unknown scale”.
The scale is unknown because dozens of people are still missing and as many as 100 have life-threatening injuries. But the trauma is not in doubt, given:
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many of the victims were teenagers;
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the small size of the town where the tragedy occurred; and
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the memories of previous fatal nightclub fires around the world.
Horror on the dancefloor At 1.30am on New Year’s Day, a fire broke out on the ceiling of Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, in the Valais canton. Video footage shows people dancing beneath the flames, seemingly unaware of the danger. Some hold lit sparklers attached to champagne bottles.
What happened next? Witnesses say the entire ceiling, parts of which appear to have been covered in soundproof foam, was ablaze within seconds. Two women who got out of the building told French media that roughly 200 people tried to escape up a narrow set of steps.
Known unknowns The fire started in the basement nightclub, below a bar on the ground floor. Although investigations are continuing, officials “currently assume” that the sparklers were to blame. They did not speculate on claims that the venue had no emergency exit.
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The setting Crans-Montana is a luxury ski resort popular with foreign tourists, which explains why many Italian and French citizens were at the bar. Le Constellation was the main venue in town where young people could drink. It was affordable and did not charge for entry. Many local people knew someone who was there.
Cut short The first victim named was a 17-year-old Italian golfer, Emanuele Galeppini, though this has not been confirmed by Italy’s foreign ministry. Many families will face an unbearable wait for news because of the severity of the fire and the fact some attendees were not carrying ID.
A complex task Pierre-Antoine Lengen, head of Switzerland’s judicial police, said identifying the dead was an “absolute priority”. He pointed to the DVI – disaster victim identification – protocol, which the country’s officials can implement after a catastrophe to enlist the help of doctors, dentists and other professionals. It was used when Swiss citizens were caught up in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.
Waiting and hoping In the meantime, teenagers have taken to social media to post pictures of those who are missing. One mother said she had searched for her son for 30 hours. A girl who escaped told Reuters she wanted to thank God and ask him to save her friends. “I’ve already lost people,” she said. “We’re still looking and I don’t want to because I am so scared.”
Painful memories Many have drawn a comparison to the 2003 US tragedy at the Station nightclub in Rhode Island. Fireworks ignited foam inside the venue, killing 100 people. Since the millennium, at least seven other fatal club fires have been started by fireworks or flares.
What’s more… While Swiss officials count the dead, footage of the tragedy is circulating online. One video shows a scrum of teenagers screaming as they try to escape the bar through a single door.
Photograph by Maxime Schmid/ AFP via Getty Images