Dozens Dead in Swiss Alpine Bar Fire During New Year Celebrations

A devastating fire tore through a crowded bar in the Swiss Alps resort town of Crans-Montana shortly after midnight on New Year’s, killing approximately 40 people and injuring about 115 others, most with serious injuries.

Sixteen-year-old Axel Clavier from Paris described feeling like he was suffocating inside Le Constellation bar where he had been celebrating with friends. He managed to escape by forcing open a window with a table, but one of his friends died in the blaze, and others remained missing hours after the disaster.

“I’m still in shock,” Clavier told The Associated Press. Though he lost his jacket, shoes, phone, and bank card while fleeing, he acknowledged that “I am still alive and it’s just stuff.”

Valais Canton police commander Frédéric Gisler said during a news conference that authorities are working to identify the victims and inform their families, adding that the tight-knit alpine community is “devastated.” Officials did not immediately have an exact count of the deceased or confirm precisely how many people were in the venue when the fire broke out.

“This evening should have been a moment of celebration and coming together, but it turned into a nightmare,” said Mathias Reynard, head of the regional government of the Valais Canton.

Eyewitness accounts of how the fire started have begun to emerge. Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV they saw a male bartender lifting a female bartender on his shoulders as she held a lit candle in a bottle. According to their account, flames quickly spread and collapsed the wooden ceiling. One woman described a panicked crowd surge as people frantically tried to escape from the basement nightclub up a narrow flight of stairs through a single narrow door.

Another witness described to BFMTV people smashing windows to escape the blaze, with many suffering grave injuries. He likened the scene to a horror movie as he watched from across the street while panicked parents rushed to the venue in cars, desperately seeking information about their children.

Beatrice Pilloud, Valais Canton attorney general, emphasized that it was too early to determine the cause of the fire, though she clearly stated: “At no moment is there a question of any kind of attack.”

“For the time being, we don’t have any suspects,” she added 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.” Part of the investigation will examine the venue’s maximum capacity and whether it was exceeded.

Crans-Montana is a prestigious Swiss resort town known for its high-altitude ski runs rising around 3,000 meters (nearly 9,850 feet) in the heart of the Valais region. The resort regularly hosts major sporting events and was preparing for upcoming World Cup skiing competitions. It sits less than 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Sierre, where 28 people, including many children, were killed in a 2012 bus crash inside a Swiss tunnel.

The disaster has strained local emergency resources, prompting authorities to urge residents to show caution in coming days to avoid accidents that could further burden the area’s overwhelmed medical facilities.

Swiss President Guy Parmelin, speaking on his first day in the largely ceremonial job, acknowledged the trauma experienced by emergency responders who were “confronted by scenes of indescribable violence and distress.”

“This Thursday must be the time of prayer, unity and dignity,” Parmelin said. “Switzerland is a strong country not because it is sheltered from drama, but because it knows how to face them with courage and a spirit of mutual help.”

The tragedy marks one of the worst disasters in Switzerland’s modern history, with the resort town now focused on supporting survivors and grieving families as investigators work to determine exactly how the deadly fire unfolded.