Sparkling flares in Champagne bottles coming too close to ceiling ignited deadly bar fire, officials believe

Initial investigations suggest the fire that tore through a Swiss ski resort bar New Year’s Eve, killing at least 40 and injuring dozens of others, started when “fountain candles” attached to Champagne bottles were carried aloft too close to the ceiling, the local prosecutor said Friday.

“Everything suggests that the fire started from the burning candles, or ‘Bengal lights,’ that had been attached to Champagne bottles. These went too close to the ceiling. From there, a rapid, very rapid and widespread conflagration ensued,” prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud told a news conference.

The sparkling candles are the kind that are available retail and typically used for birthdays, officials noted.

Pilloud detailed what officials have learned so far as they continue to investigate what happened at Le Constellation bar in the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.

Officials also say they’re investigating whether a foam layer in the ceiling related to acoustics was compliant with safety rules but have yet to make definitive conclusions.

As of yet, no criminal liability has been established.

Also Friday, investigators continued the painful task of identifying the people who’ve died.

Dental, DNA samples used in ID process

Emanuele Galeppini, a 16-year-old Italian international golfer who lived in Dubai, was the first victim to be identified publicly.

So severe were the burns suffered by the mostly young crowd of revellers that Swiss officials said it could take days to name all who died. Over 100 people were also injured, many of them seriously. A definitive death toll will also take time, officials say.

“The first objective is to assign names to all the bodies,” Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Feraud told a news conference on Thursday evening, adding that could take days.

Experts were using dental and DNA samples to identify them, Feraud said.

Of the injured, 50 have been transferred outside Switzerland to a specialist burn unit, Mathias Reynard, head of government of the Swiss canton of Valais, told a news conference on Friday. The number of injured was at 119, with 113 identified, reporters were told.

Parents of missing youths issued pleas for news of their loved ones as foreign embassies scrambled to work out if their nationals were among those caught up in one of the worst tragedies to befall modern Switzerland.

WATCH | Tragedy in Switzerland:

Deadly bar fire one of the ‘worst tragedies’ Switzerland has ever seen, president says

Swiss officials, including police representatives and the president, spoke Thursday after a deadly fire overnight at a bar in a resort community left around 40 reported dead, with many more severely injured.

“I have been searching for my son for 30 hours. The wait is unbearable,” Laetitia, the mother of 16-year-old Arthur, told BFM TV, saying she was desperate to know if he was alive or dead and where he was.

“If he’s in the hospital, I don’t know which hospital he’s in. If he’s in the morgue, I don’t know which morgue he’s in. If my son is alive, he’s alone in the hospital and I can’t be by his side.”

In a statement Thursday, Global Affairs Canada said it wasn’t aware of any Canadian citizens impacted by the incident.

Swiss officials said Friday that 71 injured people are Swiss, another 14 are French nationals and 11 are Italian.

Reynard said experts were using dental and DNA samples for the task.

Young people mourn near the Le Constellation bar. Italy and France are among the countries that have said some of their nationals are missing. (Antonio Calanni/The Associated Press)

“All this work needs to be done because the information is so terrible and sensitive that nothing can be told to the families unless we are 100 per cent sure,” he said.

The bodies of those who died have now all been removed from the bar, a Swiss official told Reuters. Police were still on site to continue investigations into the cause of the blaze, which Swiss authorities said they were treating as a fire, not an attack.

Italy and France are among the countries that have said some of their nationals are missing. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani will visit Crans-Montana on Friday, said Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado.

The Italian Golf Federation said it “mourns the passing of Emanuele Galeppini, a young athlete who carried with him passion and genuine values.” The federation had named him as one of the casualties.

Australia has also said one of its nationals was injured.

WATCH | New Year’s Eve celebration became deadly inferno:

Dozens dead in Swiss New Year’s Eve party fire

Officials say about 40 people are dead and 115 others injured, most of them seriously, after a fire tore through a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Montana in southwestern Switzerland.

Swiss officials have said around 40 people were killed, while Italy has put the death toll at 47, based on information from Swiss authorities.

Cause under investigation

Survivors and footage broadcast on social media suggested that the ceiling of the bar’s basement may have caught fire when sparkling candles got too close, accounts that seem to back initial findings by investigators.

Citing Switzerland’s chief prosecutor, Italy’s foreign minister said dozens of interviews have already been carried out.

“The aim is to determine where the responsibilities lie for this immense tragedy,” Tajani said. “Something was missing, something didn’t work, but it will be up to the judiciary to conduct the investigation and ascertain responsibility.”

Residents of Crans-Montana, which has the distinction of being not only a popular draw for skiers, but also golfers, were stunned by the inferno. Many knew victims and some said they were lucky not to have been there themselves.

France’s Le Midi Libre newspaper said one French woman had been identified among those killed in the fire. France’s foreign ministry declined to comment.

Hundreds of people stood in silence near the scene as they came to pay their respects to the victims on Thursday night. Switzerland has also ordered the national flag to be flown at half-mast for five days as a sign of mourning.

“You think you’re safe here, but this can happen anywhere. They were people like us,” said Piermarco Pani, an 18-year-old who, like many others in the town, knew the bar well.

Dozens of people left flowers or lit candles on a makeshift altar at the top of the road leading to the bar, which police had cordoned off. Some cried, others quietly hugged one another.

Firefighters leave flowers and candles near the bar where the deadly fire broke out. (Harold Cunningham/Getty Images)

Behind the cordon, the bodies of some victims still lay in the bar, police said, as they pledged to work around the clock to identify everyone who succumbed to the blaze.

Kean Sarbach, 17, said he had spoken to four people who escaped from the bar, some with burns, and that they had told him the flames had spread very quickly.

Another person, identified only as Axel, who was in the basement where the fire started, told reporters he did not know how he “miraculously” made it out.

He said he turned over a table and hid 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 used a table, then his feet, to break a window to get out, avoiding what he said was a single door that was too narrow for the many people trying to escape.

Elisa Sousa, 17, said she was meant to be there, but ended up spending the evening at a family gathering instead.

“And honestly, I’ll need to thank my mother a hundred times for not letting me go,” she said at the vigil for the victims. “Because God knows where I’d be now.”