“Firemen were crying! I saw people dismembered, dying before my eyes” » Lamine Yamal's fan is a student in Geneva
Article by Daniel Scorpie – Published on Thursday, 01 January 2026, 21:31 / Updated on Thursday, 01 January 2026 22:01
Gianni (19), a mechanical engineering student in Geneva, arrived before the firemen and ambulances at the scene the New Year's Eve tragedy from Crans-Montana. Lamine Yamal and Spain fan makes shocking revelations: “I couldn't have imagined anything worse than that night,” he told Swiss publication 20Minutes.
2026 begins with a drama of New Year's Eve proportions in Switzerland. The bar “Le Constellation” in Crans Montana caught fire at around 1.30am, and the fire was apparently caused by fireworks lit in the resort of the luxury ski resort. would have taken 47 lives, the first balance of the authorities talking about 115 injured, of which 40 people, mostly young people between 16 and 26 years old, arrived at the hospital in a very serious condition!
Hundreds of tourists, mostly winter sports enthusiasts, were celebrating New Year's Eve, but the party turned into a big tragedy for those who chose to enjoy themselves in the “Le Constellation” bar. Up to 300 people can enter there, and another 40 can sit on a small terrace, the place also has a basement. There would have been at least 200 people when the inferno started.
47 dead and 115 injured, of which 40 are in a very serious condition!
The explosion that was heard took place around 1:30 local time, half an hour before the bar closed. And, according to the first information on the scene, it was caused by the fireworks that were placed in the champagne bottles brought to celebrate the transition to 2026.
One of the waitresses climbed on the shoulders of another and the flame touched the ceiling, which ignited, and the fire immediately spread to the premises due to the non-fireproof sound insulation in a few tens of seconds.
As the bar had no emergency escape routes, everyone rushed towards the only exit, only there were broken bottles on the stairs leading down to the ground floor. So there was a terrible mess inside “Le Constellation”, which caused many casualties.
To help them, among the first to arrive on the scene was Gianni, a 19-year-old student with experience in such emergency situations. A fan of Lamine Yamal and the Spanish national team, he was shocked by what he experienced, recounting the tragedy in the Swiss publication 20Minutes.
The New Year's Eve fire broke out in Le Constellation Bar in a resort in the Crans-Montana ski resort
“I couldn't have imagined anything worse than that night. A friend was supposed to go to Le Constellation. She arrived five minutes after the tragedy. She heard loud explosions and saw flames,” says Gianni. He ran there when there were no firemen or ambulances yet.
“They had no faces, no hair! Blackened bodies, their clothes were melting into their skin. The victims with severe burns are very many”
“Emergency services arrived quite quickly, but they were coming from a long way. Ambulances were extremely slow. People were lying on the ground, shirtless, disfigured, burned.
Once the perimeter was secured, Gianni decided to act, offering help to the firemen: “There weren't enough. I had never seen so many people in such a bad condition. The further we went towards the bar, the worse the cases became. Severe burns.
They had no faces, no hair! The bodies were blackened and their clothes were melting into their skin”. Together with other volunteers, he improvised stretchers using the metal frames of sofas to evacuate the wounded: “The number of victims with severe burns was enormous.”
Sometimes we had to lay the victims on the ground and “abandon” them to go find those who were inside. I saw people almost dismembered, unable to respond. Many have died before my eyes
– Gianni, the Swiss student, rescuer at Crans-Montana
The New Year's Eve fire broke out in Le Constellation Bar in a resort in the Crans-Montana ski resort
“No help was offered. The only person who spoke to me was a police officer who told me to leave!”
The 19-year-old student said operations continued until dawn at 5:00am in temperatures of -11 degrees Celsius: “I had to run to get blankets from nearby bars.
You couldn't tell a child from an adult, a woman from a man, people were so badly burned. It is impossible to identify them.”
Gianni is convinced that he saved lives. “I'm sure we helped people. Very few civilians came to help, only three or four. The firemen were crying. It was worse than a horror movie. The adrenaline took over the whole night and I still haven't fully realized what I experienced.”
Gianni regrets the lack of intervention by the police or the fire department. “I was not offered any help, no medical assistance, even though I was exposed to the smoke. The only person who spoke to me was a police officer, who told me to leave.”
