Crans-Montana: What we know so far about the Swiss resort fire

A fire at a bar in a Swiss ski resort has killed 40 people and injured another 119, officials say.

The bar, Le Constellation in the resort of Crans-Montana, was full of Swiss people and tourists celebrating New Year’s Day in the early hours of Thursday when the blaze began in the basement area.

Prosecutors say that, according to initial investigations, the likely cause of the fire was sparklers on champagne bottles being carried too close to the ceiling.

Switzerland’s President Guy Parmelin called it “one of the worst tragedies” experienced by the country.

A teenage golfer from Italy is the first victim to be named by media, though not officially.

Families of missing teenagers are facing an agonising wait for information, as most of the 40 victims and six of those injured are yet to be identified.

A helpline has been set up for concerned families: +41 848 112 117

Here is what we know so far.

Several media outlets have named Italian golfer Emanuele Galeppini, 16, as the first identified victim of the fire following a statement from the Italian Golf Federation.

A spokesperson for the Italian foreign ministry told the BBC it was not confirming this.

In a tribute, the Italian Golf Federation called Emanuele a “young athlete who carried with him passion and authentic values”. But the statement does not mention the fire in Switzerland.

Local Italian media previously reported Emanuele’s father had said his son was at the bar on the night of the fire, and that the family had last had contact with him at midnight.

The Italian foreign ministry has said six of its citizens remain missing.

France has also said eight of its citizens are missing and it cannot rule out that French nationals are among the dead.

Police commander Frédéric Gisler confirmed on Friday that 113 of the 119 people injured had been formally identified.

Those identified include:

• One citizen from Luxembourg

He warned the figures might change.

Many of those injured in the fire remain in a critical condition, authorities said.

French football club FC Metz said one of its youth players had been “severely burned” in the fire. Tahirys Dos Santos, 19, was airlifted to a hospital in Germany for treatment, it added.

The UK embassy in Switzerland says it is monitoring the situation but it has not been approached for assistance.

Consular staff are on standby to support any British nationals affected, a Foreign Office statement said.

Béatrice Pilloud, the attorney-general of the Valais region, said everything led investigators to believe the fire had started from sparklers attached to bottles of champagne.

“Everything leads us to think that the fire started from sparkling candles – or sparklers – which were put on bottles of champagne and that was moved too close to the ceiling,” she told reporters on Friday. “From that, a blaze began very quickly.”

She said that the two French managers of the bar had been interviewed as well as people who escaped the fire.

BBC Verify has verified two photos showing lit sparklers attached to bottles inside the bar which were shared online with claims they had been taken around the start of the fire, at 01:30 (00:30 GMT).

One image shows people holding several bottles in the air with lit sparklers attached and what appears to be a fire on the ceiling.

The second image shows someone in a sleeveless black dress and crash helmet holding a bottle with a lit sparkler attached, on the shoulders of someone wearing a mask.

Earlier, Ms Pilloud had said an investigation would look into whether the bar had met safety standards and had possessed the required number of exits.

Investigators will be examining safety measures in place such as the use of fireproof materials.

Among materials that will be examined, RTL TV suggests, is a layer of foam that appears to have been applied to the ceiling of the basement, possibly for sound-proofing.

Two French nationals who spoke to BFMTV described the evacuation as “very difficult” because the escape route was “narrow” and the stairs to get outside “even narrower”.

A survivor called Axel, who had been in the basement of the bar, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency that he did not know how he had “miraculously” made it outside.

He turned over a table and sheltered behind it to protect himself from the fire, before making his way upstairs. “We couldn’t see anything, I was half choking,” he said. He eventually broke a window to get out, avoiding what he said was a single door that was too narrow for the many people trying to escape.

At an earlier news conference, Ms Pilloud did not confirm if the stairs were narrow, adding that investigations would assess whether they were in line with requirements. She said it was too early to comment on any safety failures.

Le Constellation is a large bar which has been around for many years.

Although the resort of Crans-Montana itself is quite upmarket, Le Constellation was not particularly posh, the BBC’s Silvia Costeloe reports from the resort.

Upstairs, there is an area with TV screens where people go to watch football matches. Downstairs is a big bar where people were probably drinking and dancing.

It could hold up to 300 people and had a small terrace, although it is unknown how many people were there at the time of the fire.

The Christmas and New Year holidays are one of the busiest times of the year for Alpine ski resorts.

A promotional video posted on YouTube for Le Constellation, published in May 2024, showed women in motorcycle helmets walking through the bar while carrying sparklers in alcohol bottles above their heads.

The caption, written in French, read: “The Constellation Crans-Montana welcomes you every day from 9am to 2am, 365 days a year without interruption.”

Correction 2 January: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the attorney general said the staircases appeared to be narrow. This was a result of an error in the live broadcast translation of the press conference and the story has since been amended.

Clarification 2 January: This story earlier stated 14 Polish citizens were believed to have been injured in the fire. In fact, Poland had offered to treat 14 people in its hospitals. Authorities on Friday said one Polish citizen has been injured.