Le Constellation bar in the elegant resort of Crans-Montana, where the tragedy occurred on New Year's Eve, advertised itself by using Bengal fires, i.e. flares, to celebrate, ANSA notes.
How many people died in the fire?
What materials were used in the construction of the bar?
Who was the injured Polish citizen?
What was the nationality of the other injured people?
It was probably the pyrotechnics attached to bottles of alcohol for toasts that caught the fire, especially the low ceiling, says the state-owned Italian news agency. A similar hypothesis was previously put forward by Swiss Attorney General Beatrice Pilloud.
“The walls in the bar were made of flammable foam,” adds ANSA. Among the clear deficiencies in the security system, he also mentions only one door in the premises, which could accommodate up to 400 people.
Tragedy in Switzerland. They were having fun instead of running away. There is a recording
The media also discusses the presence of very young people in bars. The place was the only one in the area that admitted 16-year-olds, but it cannot be ruled out that there were even younger people there.
Earlier, recordings showing participants of the New Year's Eve party dancing and singing despite the flames consuming the roof were circulated online. Some of them recorded the entire event on their phones.
Fire in a bar in Switzerland. The owners of the premises deny the allegations
Swiss media, however, quote statements from the owners of the premises, who assured that they were shocked because everything there was in line with applicable standards. They also emphasized that the bar had been inspected three times in the last 10 years.
The hotel's owners are a couple from Corsica and the Côte d'Azur. They live in Switzerland, where they have two more premises in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino. The woman was in the bar at the time of the fire, and as a result of the incident she injured her hand.
The head of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs laid flowers
A team of crisis psychologists sent by the Civil Defense of the Lombardy region arrived in Crans-Montana on Friday to support the injured and the families of the victims. Psychologists from Trentino-Alto Adige are also present.
“Something didn't work,” said Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who arrived at the scene of the fire and laid a bouquet of flowers there.
Tragedy in Crans-Montana, Switzerland. 47 people are dead and 199 are injured
On the night from Wednesday to Thursday, a fire broke out in the Crans-Montana ski resort in the Swiss canton of Valais. As a result of the explosion that occurred on January 1 at approximately 1:30 in the Le Constellation bar, 47 people were killed and 119 – including a Pole – were injured, but these numbers are constantly changing. Officials indicated that the incident was most likely an accidental fire, ruling out an act of terrorism.
Police identified 113 of the 119 injured people. 71 of them are Swiss, 14 are French, 11 are Italians, four are Serbs. In addition, one Bosnian, one Belgian, one Luxembourger, one Pole and one Portuguese were injured. The nationality of 14 people has not yet been determined – said local police chief Frederic Gisler – We have preliminary confirmation that our citizen is among the injured – said Maciej Wewiór, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an interview with Onet. After a few hours, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the Pole was hospitalized in Switzerland and was under the care of his family.
