Deadly Swiss bar fire caused by champagne sparklers, official says

At least 40 people have been killed and around 119 others injured in a fire at a New Year’s party in ski resort bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

• Probe underway: Sparklers on champagne bottles that came too close to the ceiling appear to have caused the fire, officials said Friday. This led to a flashover, in which everything in a room ignites almost simultaneously. Swiss prosecutors have opened a probe into possible criminal responsibility.

• Families wait for news of loved ones: Multiple people are missing, including a teenager who was celebrating the new year with friends. Authorities say identifying those killed could “take several days.”

 New videos showed terror and chaos as the fire broke out inside the bar and people rushed to escape. Witnesses had reported seeing employees carrying sparklers in champagne bottles in the tightly packed bar before the blaze.

Images widely circulating online from the New Year’s blaze show bar staff in motorcycle helmets perched on others’ shoulders, holding champagne bottles with sparklers amid a tightly packed crowd inside Le Constellation.

One image shows at least six bottles, with the lit sparklers attached, raised in the air as fire and smoke breaks out on the ceiling above.

The sparklers appear to have ignited what experts believe is acoustic paneling – material used to improve sound quality and a potential fire hazard that one independent fire consultant described as “plastic petrol.”

Swiss Chief Prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud said in a news conference Friday that all evidence pointed to the sparklers causing the fire.

Sparklers in champagne bottle started fire, chief prosecutor confirms

The deadly fire at a ski resort bar in Switzerland was caused by sparklers in a champagne bottle that came too close to the ceiling, chief prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud has told journalists.

“Some hypotheses can be confirmed,” Pilloud said. “As things stand, everything points to the fire starting from sparklers or flares placed in champagne bottles that came too close to the ceiling, which very rapidly led to a flashover fire.”

Number of injured rises to 119, from 9 European countries

The number of people injured following the fire at Le Constellation bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana has risen to 119, with six people yet to be identified, according to the commander of Valais Cantonal Police.

Of those injured, 71 are Swiss nationals, police chief Frederic Gisler said at a news conference on Friday.

A further 14 French nationals were recorded, alongside 11 Italians, four Serbians, one Bosnian national, one Belgian national, one Luxembourgian national, one Polish national and one Portuguese national.

A further 14 of the patients being treated have not yet had their nationality confirmed, Gisler added.

Around 50 patients injured in the ski resort fire have been or will be transferred to hospitals in other European countries for specialist treatment, Chief of Health Department of State Council Mathias Reynard told journalists on Friday.

“Around 50 injured were transported or will be transported to European countries to specialized centers for burn victims,” he said.

He added that there had been communications with France’s health minister, and that patient transfers “have already begun to French hospitals.”

Swiss health authorities had also received an “offer of help to take care of injured patients,” from Italy, with patients to be transferred to the north of Italy, Reynard said.