The Swiss are faced with the painful task of identifying the victims of the deadly bar fire
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Investigators on Friday began the painful process of identifying the charred bodies of a fire that tore through a crowded bar and killed about 40 people at a New Year’s Eve party in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.
The blaze at a small crowd of revelers at the Le Constellation bar was so bad that Swiss officials said it could be days before they could name all the victims of the fire that also injured more than 100 people, many of them seriously.
Parents of missing teenagers have issued appeals for news of their loved ones, as foreign embassies try to determine whether their countrymen were among those caught up in one of the worst tragedies to hit modern Switzerland.
“The first objective is to give names to all the bodies,” said the mayor of Crans-Montana, Nicolas Feraud, at a press conference on Thursday evening. This he said could take days.
In a statement on Thursday, Global Affairs Canada said it was not aware of any Canadian citizens affected by the incident.
Mathias Reynard, head of the government of the Swiss canton of Valais, said experts are using dental and DNA samples to carry out the work.
“All this work must be done because the information is so bad and so critical that nothing can be told to the families unless we are 100% sure,” he said.
Italy and France are other countries where some of their people have gone missing. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani will visit Crans-Montana on Friday, said the Italian ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado.
Australia also said one of its citizens was injured.
Officials say at least 40 people have died and 115 others have been injured, most of them seriously, after a fire broke out in a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party in the Crans-Montana resort in southwestern Switzerland.
Swiss officials said around 40 people had been killed, but Italy put the death toll at 47, based on data from Swiss authorities.
All but five of the 112 injured have now been identified, Cornado said. Six Italians are still missing and 13 have been hospitalized, he added. Three Italians were returned on Thursday and three more will follow on Friday, he said.
The authorities warned that naming the victims or establishing the number of dead will take time because many of the bodies were badly burned.
The cause is under investigation
It was not clear what caused the fire. Swiss authorities said it appeared to be an accident rather than an attack.
Other accounts from survivors and photos circulating on social media suggested the basement ceiling of the bar may have caught fire when the flickering candles got too close.
Residents of Crans-Montana, which is unique in that it is not only a favorite place for skiers, but also for golfers, were surprised by the inferno. Many knew the victims and others said they were lucky not to have seen them.
Hundreds of people stood near the scene to pay their respects to the victims on Thursday night. Switzerland also ordered the country’s 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, 18, who knew the bar well, like many others in the city.
Dozens of people left flowers or lit candles on a makeshift altar at the top of the bar’s entrance, which the police had closed. Some cried, others hugged each other silently.
After the death, the bodies of other victims are still lying in the bar, said the police, as they pledged to work around the clock to identify everyone who died.
Kean Sarbach, 17, said he spoke to four people who escaped from the bar, some of whom were burned, and told him that the fire spread quickly.
Elisa Sousa, 17, said she was meant to be there, but ended up spending the night at a family gathering instead.
“And the truth is, I’ll need to thank my mother a hundred times for not letting me go,” he said at the vigil for the victims. “Because God knows where I’ll be now.”
