![\"fire](\"https:\/\/www.pentelikonews.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/a_team_of_emergency_rescuers-1-300x300.jpg\")
The deadly fire that ripped through a crowded bar in the Swiss ski resort town of Crans-Montana raises numerous questions. Around 40 people were killed and over 100 others injured in the blaze at the New Year\u2019s party. As investigators begin the grueling task of identifying the victims and trying to determine what happened, here are some of the main issues they will seek to probe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was around 1:30 am (00:30 GMT) when smoke was spotted\u201d coming out of Le Constellation bar at the heart of the upscale resort, police commander Frederic Gisler told reporters. A few seconds later, a witness contacted the police. \u201cImmediately, the red alarm, which mobilises the fire department, was triggered,\u201d Gisler said, adding that firefighters \u201cquickly contained the blaze\u201d while the injured were being treated. Authorities said they launched an investigation into the fire and declined to speculate on what caused the tragedy.<\/p>\n
Several witness accounts, broadcast by various Swiss, French, and Italian media, meanwhile seemed to point to sparklers that were apparently mounted on top of champagne bottles and held aloft by restaurant staff as part of a regular \u201cshow\u201d put on for patrons who made special orders to their tables. \u201cI think there were some ladies, waitresses, with champagne bottles and little sparklers. They got too close to the ceiling, and suddenly it all caught fire,\u201d Axel, who was present at the time of the incident, told the Italian media outlet Local Team.<\/p>\n
Le Constellation, located on the ground floor of a residential building, has a capacity of 300 people, plus another 40 people on its terrace, according to the Crans-Montana website. Several witnesses said the event space in the basement of the establishment, where the fire began, was connected with the ground floor by only a staircase, which some described as \u201cnarrow.\u201d But Wallis\u2019s chief prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud did not confirm this, stressing that the cause of the tragedy was still being investigated. Responding to questions from reporters, she said she had seen the site herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat exactly constitutes a narrow staircase?\u201d she asked, stressing that the probe would \u201cdetermine whether all safety standards were met.\u201d Pilloud also said it was \u201ctoo early\u201d to comment on whether emergency exits met the required standards or whether the necessary procedures had been followed before organizing the New Year\u2019s event. Multiple sources told AFP on Thursday that the bar owners are French nationals: a couple originally from Corsica who, according to a relative, are safe and sound but have been unreachable since the tragedy.<\/p>\n
Authorities have not yet released any information on the victims\u2019 identities, but the bar was a popular spot for tourists and was known to draw a young crowd. \u201cGiven the international nature of the Crans resort, we can expect foreign nationals to be among the victims,\u201d Gisler said. He said Swiss authorities were \u201cin close contact with the victims\u2019 families, whom we are informing in real time, as well as with the various embassies involved.\u201d Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Italian broadcaster Rete 4 that around 15 Italians had been injured and a similar number remained missing.<\/p>\n
The French foreign ministry said nine French citizens were among the injured, and eight others remained unaccounted for. Given the bar\u2019s usually youthful clientele, questions were also being raised about the possible presence of minors at the time of the tragedy. Stephane Ganzer, head of Wallis\u2019s security department, did not confirm that but said, \u201cYou can imagine that on New Year\u2019s Eve, in a ski resort, the population is undoubtedly quite young.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The deadly fire that ripped through a crowded bar in the Swiss ski resort town of Crans-Montana raises numerous questions. Around 40 people were killed and over 100 others injured in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[418],"tags":[422,423,424],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-crans-montana","tag-fire","tag-tragedy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pentelikonews.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pentelikonews.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pentelikonews.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pentelikonews.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pentelikonews.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pentelikonews.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148,"href":"https:\/\/www.pentelikonews.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pentelikonews.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pentelikonews.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pentelikonews.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pentelikonews.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}