By JAMEY KEATEN, STEFANIE DAZIO and JOHN LEICESTER, The Associated Press
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — A fire ripped through a New Year’s bar celebration in a Swiss alpine resort less than two hours after midnight Thursday, leaving dozens of people feared dead and about 100 others seriously injured, police said.
Crans-Montana is best known as an international ski and golf resort and is packed overnight Bar Le Constellation turned from a scene of revelry into the site of potentially one of Switzerland’s worst tragedies.
“Several dozen people” were probably killed in the bar, Valais cantonal police chief Frédéric Gisler told a news conference.
Work is underway to identify the victims and notify their families, but “it’s going to take time and it’s too early to give you a more accurate number right now,” Gisler said, adding that the community is “devastated.”
Beatrice Pilloud, the attorney general of the canton of Wallis, said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire. Experts have not yet reached the interior of the wreck.
“At no point is there any kind of attack,” Pilloud said.
The festive evening turns tragic
Helicopters and ambulances rushed to the scene to help the victims, including some from different countries, officials said.
Two women told French television station BFMTV that they were inside when they saw a bartender carrying a barmaid on his shoulders. The barmaid held a lit candle in a bottle that set the wooden ceiling on fire. The flames spread quickly and collapsed the ceiling, they told the radio station.
One of the women described the crowd building as people frantically tried to escape the basement nightclub down a narrow staircase and through a narrow door.
Another witness speaking to BFMTV described people smashing windows to escape the fire, some seriously injured and panicked parents who rushed to the scene in their cars to see if their children were trapped inside. The young man said he saw about 20 people scrambling to get out of the smoke and flames, and he liked what he saw in a horror movie he was watching across the street.
Officials described how the fire likely sparked a release of flammable gases that ignited violently, causing what English-speaking firefighters call a flashover or backdraft.
“This evening should have been a moment of celebration and reunion, but it turned into a nightmare,” said Mathias Rénard, head of the regional government.
There were so many injured that the intensive care unit and operating room at the regional hospital quickly reached capacity, Rénard said.
The resort is located in the heart of the Alps
In a region busy with ski tourists, authorities urged local residents to exercise caution in the coming days to avoid accidents that could require already overburdened medical supplies.
With alpine ski runs at around 3,000 meters (nearly 9,850 feet) in the heart of the snow-capped peaks and pine forests of the Valais region, Crans-Montana is one of the best locations on the World Cup circuit.
The resort will host the top men’s and women’s downhill competitors, including Lindsey Vonn, for their final events before February’s Milan Cortina Olympics. Crans-sur-Sierre Municipal Golf Club hosts the European Masters every August on the picturesque course.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin said in a post on social media that the government’s “thoughts go out to the victims, the injured and their relatives, to whom we express our sincere condolences.”
Thursday was Parmelin’s first day in office as seven members of the Swiss government rotate through the presidency for a year.
Out of respect for the families of the victims, he postponed the traditional New Year’s address to the nation, which was due to be broadcast on Thursday afternoon, Swiss stations SRF and RTS said.
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