So far, 24 victims of the tragic fire in Crans-Montana have been identified. The youngest victim was a 14-year-old girl from Switzerland. Nine people were under 18 years old. The victims include people of Swiss, Italian, Romanian, Turkish and French nationality, the police reported, quoted by the BBC.
According to an official statement, the total number of identified people who died in the fire increased to 24. Eight Swiss citizens were identified on Saturday.
The Roman daily “La Repubblica” quoted the statements of residents of the Alpine resort, who revealed that permanent changes were being made to the premises to save it from bankruptcy. According to these accounts the owners steadily increased the number of tables on the lower level and narrowed the stairs by more than half. The exit was about a meter wide.
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What negligence occurred at the bar in Crans-Montana?
How many people died in the fire?
Who was the youngest fire victim?
What do witnesses say about people's behavior during the fire?
As the newspaper's interlocutors who knew this bar pointed out, it was impossible to escape from there when there were several hundred people inside.
“The obsession with profit turned the game into a trap and ended in a massacre,” the daily emphasized.
Tragic fire in Switzerland. “Many years of neglect”
A 19-year-old woman quoted by La Repubblica, who managed to escape from the burning premises, reported that theoretically only adults were allowed to attend the party, but she heard that It was enough to show one document to enter together with people aged 16 and 17. — Unfortunately, we listened to this suggestion, she admitted.
In this way, several dozen people aged 16 and even younger entered the bar. The press also reported that the premises were licensed to serve food and alcohol, not to operate as a disco, and yet the invitation to the New Year's Eve party promised participants “crazy dancing until the morning.”
The media also recalls the memories of young people who survived the fire and saw people burning alive while trying to escape from the bar.
Instead of running away, they filmed
— We saw flames appear and felt pieces of the ceiling falling on our heads. Nobody stopped dancing and people were recording this performance – said 21-year-old Liam from Sierre near Crans-Montana.
Another participant of the ill-fated New Year's Eve party, Italian Edoardo, told Italian television: – I only filmed it for a few seconds and then I ran away. Unfortunately, others recorded the flames for a few seconds longer.
In connection with the ongoing discussion about safety issues, the mayor of Crans-Montana, Nicolas Feraud, assured on Swiss radio Rts that “the authorities have never been lenient when inspecting bars.”
The public prosecutor's office of the canton of Valais, where Crans-Montana is located, initiated an investigation against two French owners of the premises. They are suspected of unintentionally causing death, bodily injury and fire as a result of negligence.
According to the media the couple's whereabouts are currently unknown.
