What we know about the Swiss ski resort fire in Crans Montana
It was the apparent moment New Year’s revelry turned to catastrophe at an upscale Alpine ski resort.
Partygoers hoist what look like champagne bottles fitted with sparklers, yet even as they toast the occasion the foam soundproofing lining the Constellation Bar’s low ceiling is already aflame.
As officials investigated the cause Friday while setting about the painful task of identifying the dead among the dozens of charred bodies, emerging images and eyewitnesses began to piece together the horrific scene in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.
Another video — like that photo, geolocated by NBC News to inside the venue in the early hours of Jan. 1 — suggests that the panic was not immediate. Even as flames licked the rafters and debris began to drip down, some onlookers filmed on their phones while others kept dancing or talking over the music. Another person attempted to beat the flames with a white T-shirt.
Soon it became clear this was a grave emergency. Another video shows the fire more advanced, the person filming quickly turning to run up the stairs toward the exit, urging others to hurry or get out of the way.
That exit would become a grim scene, according to eyewitness Samuel Rapp.
“A lot of people were screaming and it was horrible,” he told NBC News’ British partner Sky News. “People were walking on everybody,” he said, adding that he “saw a lot of people on the floor, and I think these people were dead because someone put jackets on their faces.”
A day after this tragedy authorities, victims and relatives were trying to make sense of how it happened.
About 40 people were killed and another 115 injured, many of them seriously, local officials said Thursday. The Italian Foreign Ministry, citing police in Sion, Switzerland, said Friday that the death toll was in fact 47, although this has not been confirmed by Swiss authorities.
On Thursday evening, mourners had arranged hundreds of candles at a traffic circle near the venue, which had by this point been covered up in white plastic by authorities. There was an an air of somber stillness, with the mostly young crowd sharing hugs, and expressions of shock and disbelief.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin described it Thursday as “one of the worst tragedies that our country has experienced.”
Geneva University Hospitals said it was treating five people. Most patients were young, aged between 15 and 30, said Dr. Robert Larribau, the chief physician at the hospitals’ emergency department.
He told NBC News that many of them had “serious injuries” that appeared to have been caused by the twin phenomena of “backdraft” and “flashover.”
Backdraft is when new air comes into contact with a fire that has used up all the available oxygen. This can lead “to immediate fatal injuries, including severe blast trauma, extensive thermal damage, and lethal inhalation of toxic gases,” Larribau said, “and is therefore more commonly observed among non-survivors rather than among rescued victims.”
Flashover occurs when all flammable materials in an enclosed space ignite simultaneously, causing “severe, often deep, burns predominantly affecting exposed body areas such as the face, neck, and upper limbs, and is frequently associated with critical inhalation injury due to intense radiant heat and superheated gases,” he said.
“For those who survive, there will be weeks or even months of rehabilitation, and many will suffer lifelong consequences,” he added.
Authorities said they had ruled out terrorism, saying that an explosion at the venue was caused by the fire, rather than the other way round.
They have not commented on the images of champagne bottles fitted with sparklers. Those novelty drinks have appeared in past promotional videos for the bar, served by waiting staff wearing helmets rimmed with neon lights.
Axel Clavier, 16, from Paris, told The Associated Press news agency that he saw these drinks being handed out. He lost his jacket, shoes, phone and bank card while fleeing, but “I am still alive and it’s just stuff,” he told the AP. “I’m still in shock.”
The French and Italian governments have said their citizens are among those missing. And the first victim was named by the Italian Golf Federation on Friday as Emanuele Galeppini, a young Italian golfer “who embodied passion and authentic values,” the federation said.
The French soccer club FC Metz said one of its youth players, Tahirys Dos Santos, 19, was among those injured and had been airlifted to hospital in Germany.
Alexander Smith and Matthew Mulligan reported from London and Daniele Hamamdjian from Crans-Montana, Switzerland.
