Swiss ski resort bar fire leaves desperate families waiting for news as authorities work to identify victims

Crans-Montana, Switzerland — In silence and by candlelight, residents and tourists in the exclusive Swiss town of Crans-Montana remained in shock on Friday, mourning the dozens of people killed in a Fire that destroyed a popular bar in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

Most of the victims were just teenagers celebrating the holiday, and the intensity of the deadly fire has left authorities with a grim job of identifying badly burned remains, which they say can take days as desperate families must wait for news of their missing loved ones.

Swiss police have said about 40 people were killed and at least 115 others were injured, most of them seriously. Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland said the death toll at the resort, popular with Italians, was at least 47.

A video has emerged showing the moment when a man tried, unsuccessfully, to put out the first flames in the basement of the Le Constellation bar with a white cloth. The fire spread upward to the upper level of the building.

In videos posted on social media, people can be heard screaming as dozens run to try to 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.

About 36 hours after the disaster, which authorities say appears to have been accidental, at least two dozen people were still missing.

The façade of the bar was hidden Friday behind a white barricade.

One survivor said bar staff had inadvertently started the inferno.

“One woman stood on another woman’s shoulders with two bottles and birthday sparklers went off,” said 16-year-old French visitor Axel Cavalier. “He waved them too high, they hit the ceiling and caught fire.”

Lucas Rebot, 24, told News themezone that 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 place 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.”

News themezone sister network BBC News and France’s BFM TV released photos on Friday that they said showed the moment the ceiling’s acoustic insulation ignited, right above people holding flares, as witnesses described.

Other witnesses have reported similar information, although authorities have simply said that there has been no indication of an attack or explosion and that the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

“At no time is there any talk of any kind of attack,” Beatrice Pilloud, attorney general of the Swiss canton of Valais, said Thursday, later adding that it was not clear how many people were in the bar at the time of the fire, but that its maximum capacity would be one of the factors that would be examined as part of the investigation.

“At the moment we don’t have any suspects,” he 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.”

Meanwhile, forensic experts 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 goal is to assign names to all the bodies,” Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Feraud said Thursday, adding that this could take days.

Mathias Reynard, head of the Valais regional government, said it was essential to carry out the work “because the information is so terrible and sensitive that nothing can be said to the families unless we are 100 percent sure.”

One of the first victims identified was promising young Italian golfer Emanuele Galeppini, whom the Italian Golf Federation mourned in a statement issued Thursday as “a young athlete who embodied passion and authentic values.”

Crans-Montana is a popular ski destination, but it is also an international golf resort in the warmer months.

Italian media SportMedia said Galeppini, originally from Genoa, was 16 years old. He said his father was in Crans-Montana and had spent much of Thursday searching for information about his missing son.