After Swiss Alps New Year's Eve bar fire, a look at some of America's worst nightclub and bar fires
A blaze at a packed bar in the Swiss Alps during New Year's Eve celebrations killed about 40 people and injured 115 others, many of them seriously.
Cellphone video captured harrowing images of the tragedy's first moments as flames swept across the wooden ceiling of the bar's basement level, panicking partygoers who rushed to escape. The fire then rose up and engulfed the upper level.
The cause of the fire remains unknown, but two women told French broadcaster BFMTV they were inside the venue when they saw a waitress, who was being carried on a bartender's shoulders, holding a lit candle in a bottle that ignited the wooden ceiling. The flames spread rapidly, causing the ceiling to collapse, they said.
"In a matter of seconds, the entire ceiling was ablaze. Everything was made of wood," they said.
One of the women described a crowd surge as people frantically tried to escape from a basement nightclub up a flight of stairs and through a narrow door, noting that there were "about 200 people trying to get out within 30 seconds through some very narrow steps," according to a BBC News translation.
Axel Clavier, a 16-year-old from Paris who survived the blaze, said he hadn't seen the fire start, but did see waitresses arrive with Champagne bottles with sparklers.
He described "total chaos" inside the bar. One of his friends died and "two or three were missing," he told The Associated Press.
In the early stages of the investigation, Valais Canton Attorney General Beatrice Pilloud said it was "totally unknown" how many people were inside the bar when the fire broke out, but said authorities would be looking into its maximum capacity.
The disaster echoed some past tragedies when deadly bar and nightclub fires broke out in the United States.
The Station nightclub fire
The Station nightclub fire took place in February 2003 at a club in West Warwick, Rhode Island. The fatal fire resulted in 100 deaths and over 200 injuries.
"We went out on a Thursday night to listen to music, drink some beers and have a good time. And a quarter of those people didn't get to go home — ever," survivor Linda Saran, who was severely burned in the fire, told CBS News in 2021.
The blaze ignited when the band Jack Russell's Great White took the stage, and four large pyrotechnics were set off, sending flames up the walls and rapidly across the soundproofing foam. The nightclub owners had installed foam along the club's walls and ceilings to combat noise complaints, but the foam was highly flammable, and the club did not have sprinklers installed.
The exits were also a safety issue. Inspection records showed that three months before the fire, the owners had been cited by the local fire marshal for having a secondary, interior door by the stage that opened inward, which violated regulations. They were told to take it down, but it was still up on the night of the fire.
Happy Land Social Club fire
In March 1990, a fire at the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx borough of New York City killed 87 people and injured dozens more.
The cause of the fire was arson. A man, Julio Gonzalez, poured gasoline on the floor of the entryway and ignited it following a fight with his girlfriend.
The fire moved so quickly that a few victims still had drinks in their hands while others died hugging or holding hands.
The social club didn't have sprinklers, fire alarms or fire exits. It was operating illegally at the time, as the city had ordered it to close because of the various building and fire code violations.
In the wake of the blaze, New York City tightened fire safety enforcement and stepped up efforts to shut down illegal clubs. Gonzalez was convicted of murder charges for the many deaths in the blaze.
Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire
The Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire, the deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history, occurred on Nov. 28, 1942, at the Cocoanut Grove club in Boston. A total of 492 people died, and hundreds were injured.
The cause was never officially determined, but the fire started in the basement and spread rapidly through the lounge and up a stairway that acted as a chimney. Many patrons were trapped inside because two exit doors were locked and the single revolving door at the front entrance was jammed with people attempting to flee the blaze.
The club was filled to more than twice its legal capacity when the fire started.
Combustible soundproofing material at the club was blamed for the rapid spread of the fire. The tragedy led to changes in building codes and standards — such as requiring revolving doors to be flanked by outward-opening standard doors — as well as medical treatment for burns.
"The impacts of Cocoanut Grove are already forever enshrined in the regulations, safety practices, the innovations and knowledge that have already saved countless lives," Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said at a ceremony in 2022 marking 80 years since the blaze.