Swiss ski resort bar fire started by sparklers, investigators say, as desperate families wait for news of dead, missing
Crans-Montana, Switzerland — Investigators said Friday that the deadly fire that tore through a popular bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana early on New Year's Day was caused by sparklers on Champagne bottles, which ignited the bar's ceiling.
Police have said about 40 people were killed and dozens were badly injured. Most of the victims were just teenagers celebrating the holiday, and the intensity of the deadly fire has left authorities with grim work to identify badly burned remains, which they say may take days, as desperate families are left to wait for word of their missing loved ones.
Swiss authorities said Friday that 113 out of the 119 people injured had been identified.
Beatrice Pilloud, the attorney general for Switzerland's Valais Canton, said authorities have interviewed two bar managers to help them understand the internal configuration of the venue and its capacity. She said the investigation was still ongoing.
Video has emerged that shows the moment a man tried but failed to snuff the first flames in the basement of the Le Constellation bar with a white cloth. The fire swept upward, to the upper level of the building.
In videos posted on social media, people can be heard screaming as dozens raced to try and escape through narrow exits. Many suffered horrific burns and smoke inhalation, and dozens remained hospitalized on Friday across the country, as well as in neighboring France, Italy and Germany.
Some 36 hours after the disaster, which authorities say appears to have been accidental, at least two dozen people were still missing.
The facade of the bar was hidden on Friday behind a white barricade.
One survivor said bar staff had inadvertently sparked the inferno.
"One woman climbed onto another woman's shoulders with two bottles and birthday sparklers were going off," said 16-year-old French visitor Axel Cavalier. "She waved them too high, they hit the ceiling and it caught fire."
Lucas Rebot, 24, told CBS News he and his girlfriend tried to get into Le Constellation at 1 a.m., about 30 minutes before the fire started, but were told the venue was full and were turned away. He said he had been at the bar a few days earlier and noticed at the time that the ceiling was covered in foam insulation, "like a music studio."
CBS News' partner network BBC News and France's BFM TV published photos Friday that they said showed the moment the sound insulation on the ceiling was set alight just above people holding sparklers, as described by the witnesses.
Other witnesses have relayed similar information. Authorities said early on in the investigation that there was no indication of an attack or explosion.
"At no moment is there a question of any kind of attack," Pilloud said Thursday, adding later that it was unclear how many people had been in the bar at the time of the fire, but that its maximum capacity would be one of the factors looked at as part of the investigation.
"For the time being, we don't have any suspects," she said when asked if anyone had been arrested. "An investigation has been opened, not against anyone, but to better understand the circumstances of this dramatic fire."
Forensic experts, meanwhile, have begun using dental and DNA records to identify the dead.
Clavier said one of his friends had died in the fire and two or three more were among those still listed as missing.
"The first objective is to assign names to all the bodies," Crans-Montana's mayor Nicolas Feraud said Thursday, adding that it could take days.
Mathias Reynard, who heads the regional Valais government, said it was essential to carry out the work "because the information is so terrible and sensitive that nothing can be told to the families unless we are 100 percent sure."
One of the first victims identified was a promising young Italian golfer Emanuele Galeppini, who was mourned by the Italian Golf Federation in a statement issued Thursday as "a young athlete who embodied passion and authentic values."
Crans-Montana is a popular destination for skiing, but is also an international golf resort in the warmer months.
Italian outlet SportMedia said Galeppini, originally from Genoa, was 16 years old. It said his father was in Crans-Montana and had spent much of Thursday searching for information about his missing son.