{"id":217248,"date":"2026-01-02T21:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T21:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/217248\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T21:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T21:42:07","slug":"what-images-and-videos-tell-us-about-why-swiss-bar-fire-spread-so-quickly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/217248\/","title":{"rendered":"What images and videos tell us about why Swiss bar fire spread so quickly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another focus is on foam-like padding on the bar’s ceiling and whether it was compliant with safety standards.<\/p>\n

Two fire safety experts told BBC Verify that the materials visible in photos and videos of Le Constellation appeared to show “egg box foam”, a type of sound-absorbing material made from polyurethane (PU).<\/p>\n

In the photo of the bottles being held up, flames are visible on a part of the ceiling with a foam-like covering.<\/p>\n

PU foam is often treated with fire-retardant before being installed as a noise dampener in factories and entertainment venues. <\/p>\n

But untreated, it can be highly flammable.<\/p>\n

“Once ignited, polyurethane acoustic foam can exhibit rapid flame spread across its high-surface-area profile and produce dense, toxic smoke, significantly accelerating fire growth and reducing available escape time,” said Dr Peter Wilkinson of Loughborough University.<\/p>\n

Professor Edwin Galea, from the University of Greenwich, said the effectiveness of retardant treatment on PU foam can wear off over time.<\/p>\n

The Swiss authorities say they cannot confirm what type of foam-padding was used in the bar and whether or not it complied with safety standards.<\/p>\n

In Friday’s press conference<\/a>, officials talked about a “flashover” happening in the bar.<\/p>\n

Professor Galea explained this is what happens when hot gases rise to the ceiling, reach a critical temperature and then ignite the room near instantaneously.<\/p>\n

According to Michael Klippel, a fire safety expert at ETH Zurich University, “survival after flashover is very unlikely”.<\/p>\n

The authority responsible for overseeing fire safety inspections in Crans-Montana is the Office Cantonal du Feu (OCF) of the Canton of Valais. The inspections are carried out by local officials.<\/p>\n

Swiss authorities said in a press conference that inspections on a building the size of Le Constellation should have been carried out each year.<\/p>\n

BBC Verify has contacted the OCF to request access to previous inspection documents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another focus is on foam-like padding on the bar’s ceiling and whether it was compliant with safety standards.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-217248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}